>>4604812
>>4599534
(cont.)
>Take a look at the whole room with the multi-spectrum goggles, and see if there’s anything you’re missing, or anything visible outside.
>Break the news about what happened to Forbes lightly, but leave out the fact that Guttman might’ve been able to save her.
>Change the topic. Ask the vorts what they know of their fallen kin. They don’t seem particularly distressed by it.

Taking a step back from the alien corpses, you turn to look Saulson in the eyes, not sure how close he was to his fellow physicist. “We found Forbes in the server rooms near the lobby, not far from where you were attacked by the marines.” You explain, trying to seem as sympathetic as possible with your face concealed under a gas mask. “Unfortunately, she died from her injuries.”

While you can’t make out his face, you see the physicist’s shoulders slump down, seeming defeated. He shakily sighs, but doesn’t say anything.

“I’m sorry... she seemed like a good person.” You say, as he takes it in, shaking his head towards the ground before he looks towards you. “Were you two close?”

“Fuckin’ closest friend I had left.” The physicist whines as he puts two hands on either side of his helmet’s visor, as though he were massaging his temple through the glass. He sighs again, then says “Knew her husband better, went to Yale with the guy.” He begins to sit down on the side of the relay, but almost immediately something gives way under his weight, and he has to catch himself. “What the hell am I going to tell the guy?”

“Don’t worry about that yet.” You respond, knowing full well that unless Forbes’ husband was already onsite, he won’t get any story close to the truth. “Life’ll be different after this, lotta people missing, and we’ll all be looking at the world a lot differently. Let’s just make sure we’ve all got a homeworld to live on for now. Are you gonna be okay?”

Saulson just slowly nods affirmatively as he moves to lean against a wall near the pile of stacked up alien relics. When the hardened back of his suit bumps against it, a sound much louder than any of you expected echoes through the room, causing him to jump for a second.

Giving the physicist some time to process, you kneel before the alien relay device he nearly broke, examining its already barely held together design. The dish itself is the most intact piece of equipment among it all, and as a testament to human engineering, not built by the vortigaunts. A small logo, the same one you saw flashed into your eyes by your optics treasonous anti-tampering system, is carved around the dish's antenna. Triangles all with rounded bases arranged in a circular pattern. It reminds you of a camera’s aperture. You’d guess it was looted from some human technology to be used by the aliens in their own work.
(cont.)

File: aperture.png (37 KB, 1600x1600)

37 KB PNG

>>4604814
(cont.)
“Vorts,” You say idly as you examine the alien relic, hoping to break the silence of Saulson’s grieving, and take his mind off it somewhat. “Are you gonna be alright as well? You and your people don’t seem to be very distressed.”


“We see them still.” One of the vortigaunts responds.

Where Saulson sat, an old and brittle ceramic casing practically crumbled beneath him, and below it, now caked in a layer of dry clay dust you can see a load of gears, and wheels, different mechanisms all stacking and chaining together, building up from a large wheel and axle dug into the ground until it reaches a hole in the top of the casing, which is cut in a jagged, nonuniform circle, despite the rest of the cylindrical vase like casing seeming to have been crafted into a simple but neat and skilled artisan hand. In it’s current position, the dish itself seems to ride against the edge of this strange incision, but not press against, as if the gears are carefully calculated to land the dish in a certain position, where it now points directly towards the shrinking portal, from which you still hear the distant alien screaming.

Seeing nothing yet on the other side of the portal, you continue to look at the alien artifact, now turning your uneasy attention to the patterns and drawings around the device. When you first saw the large circle around the object, you didn’t initially think it seemed very… vortal, in its design, and now you can see why. It wasn’t one of the vortigaunts typical cave paintings, rather it was designed to mimic a human compass, with large and small notches along a circle. At occasional points along these notches, vortal designs have been drawn along the circumference. Pointing towards the dying portal is a stylized bird, in a circle.

“Do you guys… know what happened to your kin? Why did they block themselves in here?” You ask, as you begin to examine the alien drawings further.

Two other vortal drawings line the vortal drawings. One is a simple curved line, starting out with a hook, continuing straight for a litttle less than a foot, before finally flicking at the end. It reminds you of an incomplete “f”, or perhaps a crowbar.

The other is an angular set of lines arranged in an cock-eyed diamond shape. The crystal drawing is, oddly enough, not just painted in the usual yellow alien coagulated blood. In their alien world, the vortigaunts have taken the time to find more pigments, splitting the colors of the skewed crystal between red and tan. As you examine the dust covered symbol under the light of your gun’s flashlight.
(cont.)

>>4604817
(cont.)
“A deranged experiment.” Vorty explains, responding to your earlier question. “Early parasites. Head crabs. Escape failed.”

“How did they get thrown against the wall?” You ask.

“The Freeman’s experiment.” Another vort explains. “Unexpected energies.”

You begin to consider further questioning the vortigaunts, but your thoughts are cut off by a sudden chorus of alien hisses coming from the still open portal. The sound is amplified like a megaphone by the pipe. For a brief second, you, Kirchoff, and Saulson all look towards the portal. Your allied marine immediately lifts his submachine gun to aim down the old pipe, and you join in with your silenced pistol. With the flashlights built into two guns shining on the spot, you’re almost blinded by the glare of it reflecting off the luminescent alien gas. Then, with a bashing sound on alien door you draw your light away from the portal.

“Shit.” Kirchoff suddenly exclaims. “They’re gonna be on our ass when the portal opens again.”

“They track us.” One of the vortigaunts responds. “Remnant instincts. Pat-.”

The vorts are suddenly cut off by something banging at the room’s only entrance and exit, the ancient ceramic door currently barricaded by stacks of alien objects. For the first time, you see the freed vortigaunts faces filled with shock, and a hint of disgust. There’s a horrid, alien groan from the other side of the door as the banging continues.

Despite the now disturbed state of the vortigaunts, truly fearing whatever is on the other side of that door, Vorty looks to Saulson. “Your own lie beyond.”

The vortigaunt is suddenly given odd looks by all his kin, as though somehow, despite the interwoven minds of the creatures, Vorty has offended his brothers.

>Move the alien relay towards the tan and red crystal symbol, then wait for the portal to open in its new location, and see what’s on the other side.
> Move the alien relay towards the crowbar like symbol, then wait for the portal to open in its new location, and see what’s on the other side.
>Put on the multi-spectrum goggles, get a better look at the room, the relay, and maybe who’s knocking on the blockaded door.
>Start pulling things away from the blockaded door while Kirchoff trains his sights on it.
>Write in.

>>4604821
>Move the alien relay towards the tan and red crystal symbol, then wait for the portal to open in its new location, and see what’s on the other side.
Must be important if they took the time to find pigments for it. And any new location is better than leaving the old one open.
>"Kirchoff, check the thermals again. What's banging out there?"

>>4605217
+1

>>4604821
>>4605217
+1

>>4605217
i++

>Move the alien relay towards the tan and red crystal symbol, then wait for the portal to open in its new location, and see what’s on the other side.
>"Kirchoff, check the thermals again. What's banging out there?"

“Kirchoff, check the thermals again.” You immediately command, as you keep a cautious eye on the door, seeing the alien relics begin to budge once again. “Who’s knocking?”

“On it.” Kirchoff responds, pulling his rifle over his shoulder and peering down the scope. You hear him grumbly slightly in annoyance, before strafing around the door, and trying to fiddling with the settings on the scope. “Seeing a blur, rock’s too thick.”

The sound of alien pounding is only getting louder and more frequent, mixed in with alien moans. “Anything you can do?” You ask, as you grasp the base of the alien dish, carefully pushing on it, worried the strange set of gears might break out from below, and render the whole thing non-functional somehow.

“It’s not the mineral.” Saulson suddenly says. “The barrcicade’s ceramic. Change your angle.”

Kirchoff gives the wall a quick glare,then shrugs to Saulson, then before he moves to lean his shoulder against the wall, pressing the barrel along the side of the rock. As he tries to get a good angle on the system, you slowly push the grinding old wheels and gears holding up the alien’s device, watching through the cracks as they move against each other, changing the position of the overall system in precise, but incomprehensible ways.

“Looks a bit like one of them.” Kirchoff exclaims, his shoulder and gun all pressed up against the wall at an awkward angle to get a better view. “Lankier though.”

Slowly, the large green orb slides across the rock, the dish moving in synchronous with every imperfection the orb is forced to slip past. You turn it carefully as you can, but apparently the vortiguants are unsatisfied by your handling of the machine, and starts to help guide the machine, first giving it their own touch, then slowly butting you away from the machine as they take over, turning it towards the notch where the crystal sits. One of the vorts gives you one final nudge from it’s taloned hand and you’re no longer in reach of the machine, the creatures carefully positioning themselves as to prevent you from even touching the thing while also adjusting the object with their own delicate touch.

“Hidden eddies.” Vorty suddenly pipes. “A sensitive science. Dangerous.” The alien creature points to his slumped over kin, rather coldly. You watch closely as the creatures carefully align the dish, pulling it in odd ways that cause the gears to squeak and groan as they push against each other.
(cont.)

>>4605217
>>4605319
>>4605403
>>4605473
>>4606166
(cont.)
The alien on the other side of the wall continues to bang against the door, growing even angrier at the grinding noise. The old alien ceramics begin to shake loose from their pile, tumbling off the top and crashing into the floor, eliciting even more roars from the alien creature.

“It’s like one of the vorts.” Kirchoff repeats. “But with skinnier arms and legs. Bigger head. Something’s flailing around on the torso area.” He pauses for a moment, having to awkwardly adjust his gun to keep the angle. “Something’s going on at its feet. Ground around it’s toasty.”

“Is it just one?” You ask, closely watching the vortigaunts as they finish your work, aligning the dish with the notch that corresponds to the red and tan crystal drawn on the floor. Slowly, you also see a portal pulsing in the center of the orb, growing then shrinking, before repeating the cycle once again, each time growing a little larger.

“Hold on.” Kirchoff repeats, before flicking a dial on his scope. “Definitely like one of them.” He points a thumb to the vorts. “Got a third arm flailing around like a garden hose.” The marine suddenly pulls away from the wall, then begins to scan around quickly. “I count…” He mutters something to himself as he attempts to spot more of the aliens. “Just the one for now… might be more.”

Yet more pieces of alien pottery and furniture slip off the pile, crashing and crackling apart as they hit the ground. However, you notice in other corner of the room, the portal seems to be growing larger with much more expediency than usual. It does seem… oddly convenient.

“What did you mean… your own lie beyond?” Saulson suddenly says, sounding quickly panicked.

Instantly, the other two vortigaunts give Vorty an odd glare, as if singling him out, before saying “The Oppenheimer mustn’t remain.” It’s odd seeing disagreements amongst such typically unified creatures.

“Is there something out there?” Saulson inquires further. The vorts don’t respond. Instead, two of them glare towards the green orb, watching it pulse on final time. The portal tears open, and the room is suddenly flooded with a glowing blue gas.

Instantly, Kickoff spins around, pointing his gun at the portal, only to see the bend of a corridor. At the other end of the newly stable wormhole, concrete and steel seems to have become overgrown by orange luminescent crystals. The strange material has grown with more invasive fervor than even the xenian fungus. It’s gone so far as to make spikes that cross from one end of the hall before piercing into the pipes on the other, letting God knows what trickle slowly out, coating the walls and crystals in all sorts of strange dusts. Where the hallway bends, there’s some sort of pit with a busted covering mechanism that hangs limply around it.
(cont.)

>>4606169
(cont.)
Kirchoff spins around once again, as even more of the barricade falls apart. It’s around half its height now, and the old ceramic door is starting to move considerably with every pound from the vortigaunt-like alien groaning and moaning on the other side. The vortigaunts begin to back away from the barricade. While Vorty moves to the opposite end of the room, his two allies split off, moving towards the portal. All three of them seem rather fearful, but still sticking out from the group, Vorty doesn’t seem to want to go through that portal just yet, even if his two brothers seem intent on it.

>Move through the portal. Get the hell away from whatever’s coming, and investigate the crystals and other oddities on the other side.
>Train your weapons on the door, wait for whatever’s on the other side to bust in, and prepare to take it down so you can consider further investigating this alien place.
>Write in.
(Optionally, talk to your team.)
>”I’d drop it Saulson. I used to have to collect information in four different languages on my old assignments, and I can still never understand what these creatures are saying.”
>”Drop it Saulson. Whatever it is, it isn’t worth getting eaten for.”
>Pull vorty aside, and bring Saulson over to the creature. See if he’ll talk more away from his kin.
>”Actually I’d like to know what you meant as well Vorts. If I recall, I bought each and every one of yours freedom, so you owe me the info.”
>”Vortigaunts, stick together on me. You creatures should be the last thing getting split up out here. Besides, cowardice is unamerican.“
>”Saulson, you notice these anomalies have been a little convenient? Have you noticed any scientific patterns to their timing?”
>Write in.

>>4606172
>Shoot it where its head should be through the wall with the anti-material rifle. You don't want whatever this is to be able to follow you once it breaks through...and it should be put to rest. Then head through the portal.
>"Sorry, but we can't afford that thing tailing us, or breaking the mechanism. Now suck up your differences and get ready for whatever we run into next, we need to be a unified front."

>>4606190
this

>>4606172
>Train your weapons on the door, wait for whatever’s on the other side to bust in, and prepare to take it down so you can consider further investigating this alien place.
>boop the aliens

>>4606172
>>Train your weapons on the door, wait for whatever’s on the other side to bust in, and prepare to take it down so you can consider further investigating this alien place.
>”Saulson, you notice these anomalies have been a little convenient? Have you noticed any scientific patterns to their timing?”

File: papagigori.jpg (283 KB, 1280x1024)

283 KB JPG

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4606190
>>4606460
>>4607123
>>4607229
>Shoot it where its head should be through the wall with the anti-material rifle. You don't want whatever this is to be able to follow you once it breaks through...and it should be put to rest. Then head through the portal.(1)
>Train your weapons on the door, wait for whatever’s on the other side to bust in, and prepare to take it down so you can consider further investigating this alien place. (2)
Gonna do a quick tiebreaker for the action prompt.

>>4607286
Boop
The
Snoot

>>4606190
>>4606460
>>4607123
>>4607229
>>4607286
>>4608303
Apologies for the delay pals.
>Shoot it where its head should be through the wall with the anti-material rifle. You don't want whatever this is to be able to follow you once it breaks through...and it should be put to rest. Then head through the portal.(1)
>"Sorry, but we can't afford that thing tailing us, or breaking the mechanism. Now suck up your differences and get ready for whatever we run into next, we need to be a unified front."
>boop the aliens
>”Saulson, you notice these anomalies have been a little convenient? Have you noticed any scientific patterns to their timing?”

“Kirchoff, Saulson, keep yourselves and the vorts away from the door in case this ricochets.” You say as you lug your heavy single shot rifle over your shoulder. You pull the heavy bolt back halfway, seeing a .50 BMG round already in the chamber. “And herd the vortigaunts into the portal.” You glance over to the creatures on either side of the room. “Sorry, but we can’t afford that thing tailing us.” You grab your multi-spectrum goggles off of your belt, quickly pulling it over your face and flicking it’s advanced optics to infrared.

What remains of the ceramic relics, and the large door simply shows as only a dark blob of grey on the background of cold black rocks. You didn’t think about this. You won’t be able to see the creature on thermals, at this angle, and it’d just bounce off the rock at the angle Kirchoff used to see it. No way you’re gonna make a headshot blind. “Kirchoff, how tall are these things?”

“Like the ‘gaunts but it’s keeping its neck straight.” The marine responds, waving one of the vortigaunts towards him. As Vorty moves towards the portal, you take one hand off the grip of your gun, and poke the spot where a human would harbor a nose. He stops in his place, confused for a brief moment you use to note in your head where “center-mass” sits above the ground on one of these alien, hunchback creatures.

“Alright,” You say, waving Vorty off. “Now suck up your differences, and get ready for whatever we run into next. We need to be a unified front.”

The creature just begins to walk off, following his kin and not really responding to your speech. You return you attention to the scope of your rifle, take a breath, hold the heavy gun as steady as you can from a crouching position, then clear your mind as you pull the crisp trigger.
(cont.)

>>4608409
(cont.)
Instantly, a booming sound erupts through the room, roaring through its echoe in the brief second before your unprotected ears are left ringing. The muzzle flash turns leaves a spot of pure white in the air for a moment, before the muzzle flash dissipates, and before you is scalding hot dust trailing through the air, the pulverized particles of what were once vortigaunt relics. As the hot dust quickly cools and dissipates, you immediately notice that the creature is no longer shrouded. Through the infrared optics is a hunchback white silhouette, staggered in place, and radiating a grey glare of heat.

Quickly, you flick the goggles off of your gas-mask visor, seeing the grays browns and greens of Xen once again illuminated by the light blue gas flowing through the portal. Before you, staggered when the ceramic door shattered like glass from the powerful round tearing through it. At first glance, you assume you’ve blown the chest of a vortigaunt clean open, but as more distant moaning sounds echo off in the distance, and the creature begins to fall over, you notice the oddity currently clasped onto the vortigaunts head, which is held unnaturally high. It’s as if a slightly smaller xenian controller had latched onto the creature's eye and mouth, sticking there with four chitinous alien legs.

The creature falls to the ground, after a second, but not without spasms of electricity from the dying body. Only able to get a glimpse of the rows of alien homes past both the doorframe, and the blinding sparks. As more creatures in the distance begin to roar, you quickly stand and turn around, seeing Saulson waiting at the portal between worlds. Seeing the portal already starting to destabilize, you dead sprint through the room with your rifle still in hand. The alien screams and groans grow only louder behind you by the time you slip through the portal with a small shimmering sound. The moment you’re back on earth, you let the large, durable, but cumbersome rifle hit the floor, and quickly draw your silenced pistol from your belt, pointing its flashlight towards the door and shouting, “Kirchoff, we might have incoming!”

Behind, you hear the marine swivel, smacking his mp5’s charging handle, expectantly waiting alongside you for more of those things. One of the shambling abominations pokes its head through the door, however just before either of you have a chance to line up a shot and gun it down, the portal shuts before you, letting you relax, and pick up your anti-tank rifle.

With no more door, and the former-vortigaunts now agitated by the loud sound, going back through there in the future might be a lot more dangerous.

“Wormholes seem to love us.” You say with a deep exhale through your gasmask. “Saulson, you notice these wormholes have seemed a little convenient?” You ask, quickly looking around the area. “There any scientific pattern?”
(cont.)

>>4608411
(cont.)
“Uhh….” The physicist responds, still shook around by the encounter. “I don’t think so. Seemed pretty random when I was with Magnusson.”

“The Oppenheimer. Our kin awaits.” One of the vortigaunts grumbles, shaking in its hooves. “Disturbing creatures. An unwelcome glimpse. Come.” The creature begins to walk towards the hallways bend, with the orange, luminous crystals crunching underneath his feet. The whole place is lit decently by the stuff, roughly the same color as your suit.

Kirchoff however, suddenly grabs the vortigaunt by the shoulder. “Stop.” He commands. “Listen.”

In the sudden silence, you notice it, the methodical, but not slow steps of heavy hooves crushing these crystals below them like snow. Beyond that, you hear a distant, pulsing humming, muffled through the walls, but coinciding with an odd feeling of rocking, as though the whole laboratory is swaying back and forth, ever so gently.

Kirchoff suddenly lifts his rifle, scanning through the wall with his thermal scope. “Too close together to count, probably a few of them… maybe some of those fetuses mixed in… too blurry to tell.”

Saulson suddenly taps you on the back. “I recognize this place. We’re right below the test chamber. There’s a vent control not far from here.”

“The Oppenheimer. Our kin awaits.” The vortigaunt mutters again, this time slightly quieter.

“They’re coming closer. Probably heard your shot.” Kirchoff whispers. “What’s the plan?”

Ahead, where Kirchoff reports aliens are moving in, the hall bends ninety degrees to the right. Your section of the hall is painfully short, providing little cover, and leaving you backed against some sort of ruined control panel. At the bend of the hall is some sort of broken cargo lift, it’s platform slightly below the floor where its emergency brakes caught itself, although at a cock-eyed angle.

“Saulson, what is this stuff?” You ask quickly, pointing to the crystals lining the walls, growing like the alien fungal infections, and causing your geiger counter to buzz below your suit.

“Crystallized exotic matter.” He whispers back. “Unprocessed stuff. Looks like it just grew here… fascinating...”

https://pastebin.com/Lte0sgmY
>Flash the hallway, have Kirchoff provide suppressing fire while you and some of the vorts move into a better position on the broken cargo lift. (-2 Flashbangs.)
>Let them come to you. Greet the first alien that comes around the corner with buckshot, and bursts from the m60.
>Ask Saulson which of the exotic matter canisters would cause the most chaos if thrown at the aliens, then throw that one. (-1 exotic matter canister.)
>Ask Saulson to try to do that trick he and Magnusson pulled with their liga from earlier. (-1 exotic matter canisters.)
>Try to use the orange glow of the stuff to your advantage, scout ahead, and hope your color matching HEV suit provides camouflage for stealth.
>Write in.

>>4608413
>Send a stream of homing bees around the corner with your hivehand. They might be able to locate and sting the parasites to death, if you're lucky.
>Have Kirchoff ready to finish off any of them that come into sight.

>>4608442
this

>>4608442
>>4608963
>Send a stream of homing bees around the corner with your hivehand. They might be able to locate and sting the parasites to death, if you're lucky.
>Have Kirchoff ready to finish off any of them that come into sight.

Thinking quickly, you quietly command Kirchoff, “Don’t let anything come around the corner.” You quickly reach over your shoulder for the wriggling hivehand currently sitting on your back. Nodding, the marine slings his long, unwieldy semi-auto rifle around his shoulder, and instead pulls out an mp5, not trusting the damaged m60 with the task.

The marine crouches down, lining up his iron sights right on the corner, while you wave the more vulnerable members of your team back, away from where the first alien shots come from. While Saulson complies, ducking behind a particularly large outcropping of crystals, the vorts instead begin to prepare themselves, one by one starting to charge electrical attacks, allowing small sparks to build at their fingertips before looking at you expectantly to go loud, as if already guessing your plans.

Wanting to get the first shots off before the aliens can even round the corner, you angle the hivehand upwards, hoping that the insects will com down on the aliens heads. You take a quick instant to listen in on the heavy, pounding footsteps of the incoming aliens last time, before repeatedly tapping the small flabby spot of alien tissue on the underside of the hivehand, causing the creature to belch and spit out small dartlike organisms that jet from its mouth, then veer around the corner.

Instead of hearing the low, irritated groans of the alien grunts like you expect, the response to your volley of alien hornets is a high pitched whine of pain, the sound of xen controllers getting hit. The heavy stomps immediately grow faster.

“Incoming!” Kirchoff shouts as the first grunt pokes its head around the corner, before it starts releasing its first volley of alien bees. Each and every one of you are peppered and swarmed by the creatures, two of them slamming into your side like a flechette. You wince, but continue firing, every sound drowned out by the electrical pulse of the vortiguants, and a torrent of nine-millimeter fire coming from Kirchoff. The creature is staggered by the gunfire for just a brief enough moment to allow three bolts of electricity from the vortigaunts to slam into the alien’s body, slipping down into the ground and causing the many crystals growing around the creature to pop like overcharged light bulbs.
(cont.)

>>4609714
(cont.)
Still hearing the high pitched screech in the gap of Kirchoff’s fire-rate, you continue firing from the hive-hand, fearing that the xen controllers may attempt to call for backup. More hornets fling up and towards what’s beyond the corner, illicting more of the pained alien screams, until the stomping deadsprint of two more grunts overpowers all other sound. The two creatures let out a deep groaning roar as they approach. One is immediately greeted by Kirchoff’s nine-millimeter rounds cutting into its carapace, while the other is hit by hornets eagerly swinging around to redirect themselves at a new target. Seeing the source of the hornets, and the greatest threat to what is probably its master licking its wounds behind cover, the grunt begins to run, charging directly towards you. The other begins to fire off swarms of hornets into the trio of vortigaunts just as they begin to prepare another trio of electrical bolts.

As the charging grunt sprints towards you, it raises up its hivehand, but not in a usual firing stance, it draws the entire arm back to strike with the talons, your first instinct tells you to dodge, but you’re backed into a corner with this damn hallway. A few nine-millimeter rounds ping off the creature’s carapace as Saulson starts releasing quick bursts.

https://pastebin.com/Lte0sgmY
>Right before the punch, try to help the vortigaunts, quickly as possible, pull out your revolver, and fire off as many shots as possible into the far grunt.
>See if this shiny hazard suit lives up to what it claims to be. Block like you would a human punching you, then try to counterattack with your knife.
>Try and pull out your shotgun fast enough to plant a buckshot round directly in the chest of the grunt, then his friend if you haven’t been haymakered
>Try and quickly dodge out of the way of the grunt as best you can, then chase after the Xen Controllers before they can try anything. (Roll 3d6, pass on a 14.)
>Pull a smoke grenade, then throw it right in the creatures face. With luck it might just confuse, disorient, or baffle the thing to give you a window of attack. (-1 Smoke grenade.)
>Write in.

>>4609717
>See if this shiny hazard suit lives up to what it claims to be. Block like you would a human punching you, then try to counterattack with your knife.
All those krav maga classes couldn't have been for nothing, right?

>>4609717
>See if this shiny hazard suit lives up to what it claims to be. Block like you would a human punching you, then try to counterattack with your knife.

>>4609738
>>4610739
>See if this shiny hazard suit lives up to what it claims to be. Block like you would a human punching you, then try to counterattack with your knife.

Seeing the hardened pincers of the hivehand pulled back by the heavy weight of the massive grunt, you instinctively pull your arms in front of your face, one still clung onto by the hivehand, and widening your stance. You let muscle memory take over, not sparing a thought as to the physics. The grunt throws its arm forward slow but with the weight of a truck behind it.Quickly, you lower your body and head, while leaving your PCV and metal padded arms up.

In an instant, you feel your forearms slam into your Kevlar gasmask. Following that, your head jerks back before it drags your comparatively small tors with it. Despite all your training, the sheer physics of the blow throws you immediately off balance. You slam backwards into the control panel behind you. Perhaps both because of the strong protection from the hazard suit, or the large dosage of drugs it’s dripping through your bloodstream, but you barely feel anything in the moment.

Instead of getting dazed, you immediately peel yourself off the dented computer while the grunt follows through on his weighty punch. Quickly dropping the hivehand, you pull your knife from your belt, flicking out the rather small blade before lunging towards the creature. Adrenaline drives you closer as the creature bellows in rage, reliving all the close-quarters training you did primarily on larger, bulkier opponents than yourself. With one practiced motion you drive the knife up high, stabbing it right where an artery would be on a regular human, hearing the creature immediately groan out in pain. Instead of pulling it out right away, you push the blade in deeper, hoping to reach a windpipe under all that muscle.

The massive, seven foot tall alien responds not by grabbing at its throat in pain, instead it swings it’s massive arm backwards, straight towards you while groaning even louder. You quickly try to yank out the knife, but it doesn’t come lose until the creature swivels its bulbous head and boxy jaw around to roar at you, splitting flecks of yellow alien blood onto your gasmask before its gargantuan nubby arm, this time throwing you away from the creature. Your thrown away from the alien brute, flung past Kirchoff, and beyond the cover of the hallway corner.

Still running on morphine and adrenaline, you barely register the sound “Warning! Major fracture detected,” while you push yourself off the ground, now finally seeing the three vortigaunts, heavily wounded by the incoming hornet shots, burst a trio of electrical bolts into the unwounded grunt shooting at them. The creature suddenly spasms in place, the crystals around it popping like lightbulbs before it falls to the ground.
(cont.)

>>4612243
(cont.)
Meanwhile, Kirchoff and Saulson both finish off the bleeding, panting alien grunt as the massive gash in its neck slowly brings it down, all the while it fires off hornets wildly around it. While Saulson adds to the damage with overzealous, inaccurate bursts into the creatures neck, Kirchoff puts the thing down with a final burst from his mp5.

However, as you’re still regaining your balance from your tumble with the alien grunt, you hear two electrical shocking sounds, and exotic matter dust suddenly sprays all around you, coming from your right. Quickly turning your head, and dropping back into cover, the first thing you see is two bright green flashes of electrical energy, which a second later turn into vortigaunts with their chest ripped open, and a large, bulbous crab clinging on to their uncharacteristically upright necks. One of them lets out a blood curdling distortion of the typical vortal grumbles, while the other begins to run forward, over the corpse of a dead xen controller pin-cushioned with hornets.

Behind them, you can see another xenian controller, rapidly floating backwards, into the clusters of xen crystals. The slowly dissipating dust grows bright around him, specs sparking into each other as the creature retreats.

As the vortal zombies get closer, you begin to hear sounds of genuine fear from the vortigaunts. Glancing back, you can actually see their hooves shaking as their former kin draw closer.

https://pastebin.com/Lte0sgmY
>Don’t let that damn Xen controller get away. Slip past the slow, shambling vortigaunts and try your best to put a few three-fifty-seven rounds into the creatures head.
>Try to throw your last frag grenade past the vortigaunts, and land it in a position where it will blow up anything taking cover at the end of the hall, getting that Xen controller with a bit of luck. (Roll 3d6, -1 frag.)
>You and the other humans place yourselves between the vorts and the zombies, and clear the necrotic creatures out with buckshot and nine-millimeter.
>Use the hivehand again to shoot hornet shots around the other end of the hall, hopefully the Xen Controller doesn't try anything else in the long time it’ll take to kill the alien with bees.
>Tell Kirchoff to throw one of the exotic matter canisters into the hall, and see if it causes any carnage to the vortal zombies or xen controller.
>Write in.

>>4612245
>Don’t let that damn Xen controller get away. Slip past the slow, shambling vortigaunts and try your best to put a few three-fifty-seven rounds into the creatures head.
>Order the others to deal with the shamblers.

>>4612245
>>4612247
This is fine. Also I gues suit does not make us super hero.

>>4612374
I mostly wanted to see if someone with actual martial arts training could make up the difference in one, seeing as Gordon was a fuckin' nerd.

>>4612419
Who needs martial arts when you can viciously beat someone to death with a crowbar

>>4612419
A very buff nerd but point taken. I do imagine we could kick the shit out of most anything not a grunt though. Kick a xen controller in the head and pop it like a rotten pumpkin.

>>4612247
>>4612374
>Don’t let that damn Xen controller get away. Slip past the slow, shambling vortigaunts and try your best to put a few three-fifty-seven rounds into the creatures head.
>Order the others to deal with the shamblers.

“Kirchoff, Saulson, get rid of these things, I’ve got the baby.” You shout out quickly, signalling towards the incoming vortal zombies after making a quick mental note that a Grunt’s close combat abilities are closer to logging accidents than punches. Trusting Kirchoff with nothing but what you hope aren’t that different zombies, you dash down the hall, slipping through the gap in between the two alien creatures, feeling small sparks of electricity arc into the suits metal plates, causing your hairs to stand on edge.

With the slight jolts, a sudden wave of nausea rolls over you, following you as the creatures upturned faces seem to follow, but just as the feeling begins to throw you off balance, the ear-drum bursting sound of three rapid shots of a glock echoing in your general direction dispel the feeling, allowing your to run as Kirchoff shots, “Hold your fire, friendly down range!”

The nausea suddenly drops away, and you begin to run, narrowly avoiding a flew slow wide swipes from the hideously mutated creatures, putting distance between yourself and them before you hear a few careful early shots pop off, even as you’re still downrange. As you run, the alien crystals turning to dust below your fast feet like lightbulbs, and occasional stray nine-millimeter rounds zip past your feet tearing apart columns of the material, revealing the concrete below. Before you reach the end of the hallway, hearing your geiger counter tick louder and louder as you grow closer to an oddly foreboding cargo-elevator where the hall turns, you yank your Colt Python off your belt.

“Shit!” You hear from behind you as more gunshots ring out. “Behind us!”

In one motion, you take your final step beyond the corridor, cocking and taking aim with the revolver as you spot the bulbous head of the creature among the crystals. The moment the glowing sights are lined up over the massive target the creatures head provides, you jerk the trigger, sacrificing accuracy as to give it no time to try any last tricks. The three-fifty-seven round kicks like a mule, and you have to wrestle the gun barrel back down before you can yank the trigger down once again, sending another shot into the creatures head while it barely keeps itself afloat from the last shot, the orange crystals around it glowing like christmas trees, then burst as the round digs into the aliens eye, causing it to scream out in pain before you finally pull the trigger one last time, and now the creature is left unprotected by any quantum magic acts. The magnum round caves the creature's massive skull inwards, shattering the bone and splattering the brain matter across the wall. The creature's body drops like a stone.
(cont.)

>>4614677
(cont.)
As you begin to glance around you, counting the dead alien bodies, your ears still ringing from the magnum shots, you begin to make out shouting from your own allies, at the moment, Saulson. Quickly looking back, both of the vortal zombies are dead, there bodies shredded by nine-millimeter rounds, but just beyond them are both Kirchoff and Saulson, pointing their guns at two friendly vortigaunts.

“Get back you damn liars!” Saulson shouts to the two creatures, Vorty, and one unnamed creature, the former of whom is sporting a small nine-millimeter wound that doesn’t seem to be bleeding badly, perhaps as a result of the more viscous alien blood, although he’s clearly in pain. The one that isn’t shot, is shaking like a survivor of a strategic bombing. “We can’t trust these things! Fuck!” The physicist shouts panicked, the gun in his hand shaking. There’s gash on the arm he’s holding his gun with, not large enough to write off the suit, but enough to sting. “Mags was right we’re at war! Shit!”

“Saulson calm down!” Kirchoff responds, despite pointing his own gun at the vortigaunts. From behind him, you can also see a few cuts, although mostly made into his backpack, something with talons scratching him from behind. “They’re standing down, minute to figure this out!”

At the ends of their guns are only two vortigaunts, suddenly worried, you glance around, and spot one of the yet unarmed vortigaunts dead, leaned up against the walls. The way it fell, its neck and head are held up, not unlike it’s zombified kin. “Fears warranted.” The shaking vortigaunt grumbles. “Pained kin remain.”

In the brief thirty or fourty seconds you weren’t looking, something, or maybe everything, went fugazi.

>”Everybody shut up, unless you have an explanation of what happened here. Kirchoff, what happened?”
>Take aim with your own gun. “Vorts, better start explaining, no cryptic bullshit anymore. What the hell did you do?”
>Don’t raise your own gun, or demand Saulson or Kirchoff lower theirs, but stand with your arms crossed, and ask, “Vorts, what the hell happened? What fears?”
>”What are you two doing?” Walk between the two of them, place your hands atop their guns, and lower them. “Why the hell did you shoot a vortigaunt?”
>While he’s not looking, punch Saulson in the back of the head, then wrestle his gun away from him, then demand Kirchoff holster his gun lest you do the same, then wait for the vorts to explain things.
>Just stay back for a minute, observe, see how Kirchoff, Saulson, and the vorts handle whatever the hell just happened.
>Write in.

File: 1588873189486.gif (1.25 MB, 640x438)

1.25 MB GIF

>>4614678
>Don’t raise your own gun, or demand Saulson or Kirchoff lower theirs, but stand with your arms crossed, and ask, “Vorts, what the hell happened? What fears?”
>A M G E R Y B O O P L E S !

>>4614678
>”Everybody shut up, unless you have an explanation of what happened here. Kirchoff, what happened?”

>>4614683
>>4614883
>Don’t raise your own gun, or demand Saulson or Kirchoff lower theirs, but stand with your arms crossed, and ask, “Vorts, what the hell happened? What fears?”
>”Everybody shut up, unless you have an explanation of what happened here. Kirchoff, what happened?”

“Saulson- actually, everybody, shut up, unless you intend to start explaining what’s going on..” You shout out, wedging yourself into the space between the marine and the physicist, holstering your own gun as to hopefully de-escalate things between the two of your species, instead you cross your arms and take initiative. You’re torn between whose side of the story to listen to here, so instead you’re gonna take both. “Kirchoff, you start. What happened?”

“We were clearing out the zombies like you ordered. They were taking more hits than expected, got a little close, but we managed to take one down.” The marine starts explaining. “Then Saulson shouted to the left of me. Vortigaunt was on him with the talons. Thing was acting crazy.”

“Did Saulson shoot this vortigaunt?” You ask, pointing towards the dead vortal ally, while questions run through your head. Why the hell did a vortigaunt suddenly attack? Does it have something to do with their fear of the vortal zombies?

“No. He couldn’t keep control of his gun with the vortigaunt on him. I pulled it off of him, then finished it.” Kirchoff describes it in the calm manner that only USMC intelligence can muster, trained by hundreds of mind numbing after action reports of getting bombed by his own air-force or discovering a minefield the hard way. “Then one of the zombies got me across the back. Had to beat it back before I could put a few rounds in it When I turned around, Saulson had already shot that vort.” He points to Vorty, who’s currently injured up against the wall.

“It turned on me!” Saulson loudly retorts.

“Did Vorty try to shock you?” You ask.

“No.” Saulson responds nervously. “Just used his claws.”

These creatures aren’t exactly brave, so it’s odd that they’re trying to face off against the physicist in close combat, but if they did, it makes tactical sense that they would go after Saulson rather than the well armored marine.

“Why’d you attack Vorts?” You ask. “You said your fears were coming true? What fears?”

“The Vortessence breached.” Vorts responds, holding his wounds with a pained expression, but still trying to make eye contact as he explains himself. “The parasite. Headcrab. Influence leaks beyond. A horrible experience.”

You look down towards the body of the dead vortigaunt zombies, then suddenly remember that strange spike of Nausea you felt when they came close.
(cont.)

>>4617148
Apologies for the delay on this one.
(cont.)
“What do you mean the vortessence was breached? Something got into your…” you try to think back on your memories of the vortessence, that brief moment you spent confined within a little holding cell, “... hivemind?” You settle on the word, not sure if it even comes close to describing it.

“We are them.” Vorty suddenly mutters, before raising a shaky claw to point at one of the vortigaunts whose head was covered by one of the headcrabs. With it’s host dead, the vortal headcrab has fallen off, revealing the face below whose eye was burnt out, and mouth practically torn open. “They are us. Parasites are uncontained.”

“Wait.” Saulson asks. “The collars don’t do the same?”

As the two talk, you begin to look around your environment. The control panel that was behind you in the fight with the grunt seems totally destroyed, mainly by blunt force damage, and the crystals growing from inside out. However, down the hall, you do see some sort of office or monitoring room. Saulson said you’re “right below the test chamber,” but it might be good to get a better bearing on the area. Then again, time is short, and Saulson said he knew where the closest control room is, but at the same time, you have a feeling about that cargo lift up ahead. Call it CIA intuition, but if you’re right below the test chamber, that should take you closer. Of course, that’s betting Saulson’s memory about the gas is totally wrong, but time is short here.

“What do you mean?” Kirchoff interjects, but doesn’t get an answer as Vorty responds to Saulson.

“The controllers isolate.” Vorty responds. “Parasites infect.”


>”Saulson, how do we get to that vent control you mentioned from here?” Start moving towards the vent controls, trusting that Saulson hasn’t been manipulated that heavily.
>”Saulson, this cargo elevator take us closer to the core?” Don’t trust Saulson’s memories, and move directly up to the core, not trusting his deadly gas story.
>Start looking through that small office, climbing through the broken window. See if anything below will get you a better
>Find one of those damn Vortal headcrabs in the carnage of all the fighting. They’re not like the others, so it might be a good idea to get a closer look while you’re here.
>”Saulson, since you put a round in my alien friend here, you can dress his wound. Get on it.”
>”Vorts, why don’t you two guard this area for a while?” You’re not sure how to feel about them attacking you, so put some distance between you and the vorts.
>Bind the vortigaunts hands behind their backs, if they can turn on you, willingly or unwillingly, you’d rather they be unarmed.
>Write in.

>>4617150
>Find one of those damn Vortal headcrabs in the carnage of all the fighting. They’re not like the others, so it might be a good idea to get a closer look while you’re here.
A sample, if nothing else.
>"Can you isolate yourselves? We can't risk this happening again so close to the objective. Or...can you do what they did, to them? In my experience, mental influence is a two way street.

>>4617154
>Find one of those damn Vortal headcrabs in the carnage of all the fighting. They’re not like the others, so it might be a good idea to get a closer look while you’re here.
>"Can you isolate yourselves? We can't risk this happening again so close to the objective. Or...can you do what they did, to them? In my experience, mental influence is a two way street.

“I’m not letting something like this happen again so close to the objective. Vorts, can you... isolate yourselves?” You ask the creature, while you also eye the now deceased vortal headcrab. Separated from its dead host, and finished off with a nine-millimeter round, you do notice it still twitching.

“An unnatural task.” The vortigaunt responds. “Impossible unaided.”

“Well… could you maybe… try to do what they did to them?” You think up, remembering what you did to the Xen Controllers. “In my experience, stuff like that is a two way street.”

“Not unaided.” Vorty responds once again, while you turn around to get a closer look at the vortal headcrab, kneeling in front of it as though you intended to. Considering there’s two of them, that might not be a bad idea. As you look at the things, your attention is grabbed back by Vortry. “The Oppenheimer could assist.”

“How?” You respond, gently moving at the legs of the dead alien parasite, laying the creature out flat, and getting a good look at it. It’s main body is more radial than its human counterpart, almost like the creature’s design had begun by scalping one of the xen controllers. The partially spherical body extends into four radial legs, not unlike the regular headcrabs legs, although considerably less like mandibles. Atop the far more rotund central body of the crab is three radial slits, as if the top could open up.

“The Oppenheimer provides opportunities.” Vorty responds. “Dulled by analgesics.”

“Painkillers are stopping you?” You ask, then taking a quick glance down to your wrist, where an IV drip of morphine is plugged into a vein. “My painkillers?”

“Yes.” The creature responds. “A coterminous tool dulled.”

You furrow your brow as you begin to dissect the creature, not yet sure if you should listen to what Vorty is saying or not. It’s been easier to maintain coordination and good aim without the constant pounding of the migraine, and you can think more clearly now that there isn’t a searing pain every time you think forbidden thoughts, not to mention being able to get punched by a grunt without being instantly taken out of the fight through a broken rib. Of course, the Vorts seem to understand the mind better than you do, even if they don’t do a great job of expressing it.
(cont.)

>>4620396
(cont.)
As you consider, you begin to examine the vortal headcrab closer. It’s tri-sected body is very similar to the head of a Xen controller. With those, Marietta was able to rip them open to find some odd pieces of alien biology that interacted with the exotic matter. Placing considerable trust in your HEV suit, you pull your knife off your belt, and press it into one of the openings, prying. You press hard, considering significant resistance, but instead the thinner bones snap and one of the flaps pings off the body. Two small chunks of the third remain still embedded into the body, one at the top, and another at the bottom. Just below the slits, attached at three separate points is a bony pyramid not unlike the one in the xen controllers head. However, differentiating the two organs, this one is upside down, poking through the bottom of the creature, and leaking out some sort of strange black and red gas. You remember the stuff earlier, when you were experimenting with the xen controller’s brain. Chameleonic-hydrogen, you remember it being called on the small engravings on every canister of processed exotic matter.

“Saulson,” you call out, knowing he’s an expert on the stuff He’s already standing over you as you cut the creature open. “This thing’s like a balloon with exotic matter. Can you learn anything about this thing?”

“Fascinating.” He says as he kneels down. “That shouldn’t be possible. Stuff scrambles neurons” He watches closely as the last of the gas dissipates, turning into a deep red, then black.

“Any insight on how to stop another ‘gaunt incident?” Kirchoff says from behind.

“Or even just suppress their abilities?” You add, knowing it would go a long way in fixing the vortigaunt problem.

“I’d need to get a look with the LIGA at the moment we cut it open.” He explains. “There were two right. Don’t know if that’s safe this close to the chamber. The fields on this thing will excite the stuff, might burn you if you’re two close.”

“Something’s making noise down the hall.” Kirchoff says.

“It might just be the chamber.” Saulson explains. “God knows what’s happening in there.”

“Shut up.” Kirchoff responds so he can listen in. You can’t hear anything, all though he is considerably further down the hall. The marine looks down his scope. “Don’t see anything on IR.”
(cont.)

>>4620397
(cont.)
>Ak Saulson to guide you to the vent controls he mentioned, trusting the physicist’s memory.
>Start going straight towards the core of the anti-mass spectrometer, not trusting the physicist’s memory.
>Don’t go anywhere else just yet.
>Write in.
(Optionally, decide what to do about the vortigaunt zombie issue.)
>Trust the vorts, pull out the IV drip, and let them use your head somehow to protect their own.
>Tell the vorts to stay behind while you move up, so you don’t have to worry about them turning on you, and don’t have to take out the IV drip.
>Perform Saulson’s experiment. Doing it without frying yourself will take a while, which might give time for things to investigate the racket you made in the last fight.
>Just bind their claws, and escort them to the finish line.
>Don’t do anything about it, except tell Saulson and Kirchoff to exercise some more trigger discipline if the vortigaunts are controlled. Cross that bridge when you get there.
>Write in.

>>4620398
>Start going straight towards the core of the anti-mass spectrometer, not trusting the physicist’s memory.
It's too risky not to confirm it ourselves. Saulson is a scientist, I'm sure he'd understand the need to see the conditions ourselves. The HEV suit is likely built with sensors for dangerous amounts of exotic gasses anyways, given what its intended use was.
>Trust the vorts, pull out the IV drip, and let them use your head somehow to protect their own.
It'd be good to have the psychic warnings back anyways.

>>4620398
>Start going straight towards the core of the anti-mass spectrometer, not trusting the physicist’s memory.
Who knows what holes and wrong turns his brain still has?
>Trust the vorts, pull out the IV drip, and let them use your head somehow to protect their own.
This cannot go wrong in any manner whatsoever

>>4620429
>>4621179
>Start going straight towards the core of the anti-mass spectrometer, not trusting the physicist’s memory.
>Trust the vorts, pull out the IV drip, and let them use your head somehow to protect their own.

“Not right now.” You say quietly, reaching over to grab the other deceased headcrab. “We gotta keep moving.” You pack up the small parasite and it’s undissected cousin, slinging your bag around your back and packing them up. Once you’re done, you take one last long look at your wrist, hearing the beep of “Morphine administered,” once again, no doubt in response to the migraine. After a quick glance to the vorts, one of whom is watching you expectantly, you remove the needle from your wrist, the medicine dripping down your sleeve.

Saulson just shrugs, not eager to stay here and perform an experiment in an unpredictable experiment himself, and stands, beginning to move down the hall. “Hold on there Saulson” You say, turning to the vortigaunts, seeing Vorty begin to stand on his own two feet. “The elevator up ahead go up to the core?”

He turns around to give you an uneasy glare. “Ehrm… yeah but its inoperable by now.”

“You’re telling me it doesn’t have an emergency ladder?” You ask, suspecting that he’s just trying to bring you towards the vent controls he mentioned before.

“It’s for cargo, nobody’s ever supposed to be on it.” Sualson responds.

“Gravity assists.” Vorty says from behind the two of you, now on his feet, moving forwards. “Convenient anomalies. The oppenheimer’s words.”

“What?” Saulson responds, as you begin to move forwards, the physicist stays still, looking at the elevator shaft as though it were the gates of hell, before turning to ask Vorty, “Are you saying it’s like the elevator into the labs?”

“Yesss.” The uninjured vortigaunt grumbles.

“That is... convenient.” He responds with a small quiver in his throat. “Are you two sure about this?” He adds as you rejoin up with Kirchoff at the front.

“Saulson, it’s riskier not to check.” You respond. “Besides, we’re all wearing protective gear, and-” you hold up the wrist of your HEV suit, as a dribble of morphine flows down your sleeve, “-this thing probably has the equipment to detect anything like that. You shouldn’t be trusting your memory, who knows how many holes it has.”

“They don’t have any protective gear.” Saulson responds, pointing to the two vortigaunts. “The stuff will go straight to their lungs.”

“They don’t seem scared.” Kirchoff responds.

“Their heads aren’t on straight, we just saw.” The physicist responds.

“Saulson’s mind twists.” Vorty responds finally, getting a glare from his fellow vortigaunt. It’s odd, you think, that he’s even able to illicit a response like that, if they’re all one mind.
(cont.)

>>4624484
(cont.)
“Insanity’s a part of genius,” You say to the physicist, shutting up both of them as you signal the group to move forward. “You should know that working here.”

Saulson just shakes his head, and follows you along with Kirchoff and the vorts. You and the marine both take point, keeping your gun up and the flashlight on as you progress forward, peaking around the corner to your right to see the Xen controller whose brain you turned into putty, and past it, a busted sliding door that would’ve been opened by a gently breeze had the numerous crystals that have spread through the area calcified around it like a damn fungus.

You nod to Kirchoff, then point towards the broken door. He nods back, trains his sights on it. Turning away from it, you turn to the end of the hallway, where the sample lift, the final hall steel corridor between you and that damn test chamber sits. Knowing that gravity is anomalous within, you focus on your inner ear as you approach, noticing that the slight feeling of rocking, as though the whole damn lab was a ship, has now translated from ever so slightly back and forth to a perfectly later motion, as though you were standing on a spring board. Somehow, gravity is slowly pulling back and forth, is a slow, monotonous lurch, and its originating from directly within the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. As the gravitational pulse sways and you feel heavier, you notice a dull, numbed pain as the morphine runs out of your system, growing just as gravity pushes downwards.

Getting more familiar with the anomalous gravity that has plagued these labs, you slowly step in. As you cross the threshold into the elevator shaft, you’re suddenly stuck with a spike of adrenaline as the feeling of falling hits you, but you stay in one place. Taking another step further inwards, you suddenly find yourself pushing off the ground, having to catch yourself on the gears as you float up.

“Vorts were right.” You say, looking up the shaft as you pull yourself back down to the ground. “Gravity’s gone weird here.”

“Are we being led there?” Saulson suddenly outbursts from behind the vortigaunts, who both give him a curious glare.

Having been fearing the same thing yourself since yesterday’s experiment, you don’t respond just yet, focusing on the elevator shaft above. The odd gravity has warped and twisted it, blowing it out the closer it gets to the end, before suddenly funneling into a hatch at the top labeled, “WARNING: RADIOACTIVE CHAMBER.” As though creating a maw leading into the anti-mass spectrometer, the xenian crystals have spread here too, growing even more common around the edge of the pipe and spiraling around it the closer they get.

“The Saulson remains wise.” Vorty responds to Dr. Saulson’s suggestion.
(cont.)

>>4624486
(cont.)
You take a look back to your team, then say, “There’s a hatch up there, I’m gonna get a better look up there. Barely any gravity. Kirchoff, keep watch down here until I call you up.”

The marine nods, before you kick slightly off the ground, even the small force sending you rapidly floating upwards. With every foot you move up the tunnel, you hear the geiger counter in your bag ticking louder and louder, even through the muffle of your gasmask and kevlar bag. As you grow more aware of the radiation baking this elevator shaft, you also begin to feel the twisting sensation more and more with every moment the morphine flushes from your system. Every so often, you slow, and push yourself off the side, until eventually, your gas mask is right up against the panel.

“Didn’t you hear?” Saulson shouts from below. “We’re getting led towards the chamber.”

“Our kin awaits.” One of the vortigaunts replies.

“I’m just…” You suddenly stutter, as the still partially numb pain in your head picks up once again plateauing. Looking below you, you suddenly see the elevator that once occupied this shaft has materialized. The ghostly visage of some sort of cart, with two metallic pincers that hold a Xen Crystal out in front of it. “I’m just scouting ahead. Trying to get a look.”

“Don’t know what you’re gonna see up there.” Saulson responds. “The whole chamber’s insulated from the entire electromagnetic spectrum. It’s probably gonna be so diffuse, it’ll just be glowing on every spectrum.”

You don’t respond to the physicist for a moment, considering your plan of action. You listen closely in to the hatch, trying to hear any possible sound on the other side. Faint sizzling blasts of electricity, alien screeches and roars all just barely resonate through the large splitting bulkhead. Every few seconds, you swear you hear a faint, tuned grumble, however it lacks any rhythm, and is so short lived that by the time you notice it, you can’t tell if it was your imagination. Making your observation no easier however is the heavy, bass filled humm that ebbs with the growing of gravity, and the pain in your head.

Whatever’s in that chamber might just explain all the damn anomalies, not to mention the universe itself supposedly being theoretically ready to boil itself. From the sound of it, you’re not the only one with an interest. Something is in there, on the other side of the portal. Probably a lot of things. You should be careful about how you go about this.

Your train of thought is suddenly interrupted by Kirchoff, shouting “See anything?”

“A hatch.” You respond. “Closed up but there’s a manual release.”

“What do you think’s on the other side?” The marine responds.
(cont.)

>>4624490
Apologies for the rather slow update rate lately. Work and school have been taking up a lot of my time.
(cont.)
https://youtu.be/3BdZloneS0Y
https://pastebin.com/Lte0sgmY
>Open the hatch slightly, drop a smoke grenade on the other side, and try to subtly sneak in alone, spotting any life with infrared.
>Call Kirchoff up, throw a pair of flashbangs through the hatch, then the both of you get ready to take everything hostile in the chamber head on.
>Ask Vorty and the other surviving vortigaunt to follow you up here, and protect your head, hopefully their knowledge of this stuff will keep you safe. They seem eager.
>Tell Saulson to come up here, then hand him your multi-spectrum goggles, and have him poke his head of the hatch. If his head stays attached to his shoulders, ask for his scientific opinion on what’s over there.
>Call everyone up to the top of the elevator shaft, then rip the hatch wide open with the manual release, and climb out, hopefully not drawing too much attention as you pour out the hole.
>Write in.
(Optionally, respond to your team.)
>”On the other side of this hatch is the greatest fuckup of science history won’t hear about. Prepare yourself, we gotta make sure it’s wiped from record and reality.”
>”Something big, and something valuable, with everything dying over it. I’m sure the DoD would love to sell it to someone else if it doesn’t destroy the country first.”
>”I expect to see Krishna on the other side of this hatch, grandpa’s favorite doomsday god. I’ll be disappointed if it’s anything less.”
>”Saulson, you’re right, we are being led. We’ve been led around since before the damn experiment, and I don’t see us going off the rails anytime soon.”
>”I respect the suspicion Saulson, but I’m beginning to feel whatever’s leading us around is on our side, at least for the moment.”
>Write in.

>>4624495
>Ask Vorty and the other surviving vortigaunt to follow you up here, and protect your head, hopefully their knowledge of this stuff will keep you safe. They seem eager.

>”Saulson, you’re right, we are being led. We’ve been led around since before the damn experiment, and I don’t see us going off the rails anytime soon.”

>>4624495
>Ask saulson to prepare the LIGA to do what Mags had it doing when it deflected projectiles.
>Ask Vorty and the other surviving vortigaunt to follow you up here, and protect your head, hopefully their knowledge of this stuff will keep you safe. They seem eager.
>”Saulson, you’re right, we are being led. We’ve been led around since before the damn experiment, and I don’t see us going off the rails anytime soon.”

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4624508(1)
>>4624630(2)

Gonna do a tiebreaker roll, but if anyone would like to throw in a vote that would break the tie, then I'll throw out the roll and go with that vote.

>>4625588
I mostly want him to have the LIGA ready to use at a moment's notice.

I want to take a minute to assure you guys the next update is coming tomorrow, mostly to set myself an admittedly lax deadline. Apologies for the snail's pace we've been running at lately.

>>4624508
>>4624630
>>4625599
>Ask saulson to prepare the LIGA to do what Mags had it doing when it deflected projectiles.
>Ask Vorty and the other surviving vortigaunt to follow you up here, and protect your head, hopefully their knowledge of this stuff will keep you safe. They seem eager.
>”Saulson, you’re right, we are being led. We’ve been led around since before the damn experiment, and I don’t see us going off the rails anytime soon.”

“Saulson, do you remember earlier in the hall, what Magnusson did with the LIGA to protect the team?” You shout down to the shaft. “Do you think you can do that again? Vorts I’m gonna need you two up here.”

“Uhh… no.” The physicist responds, clearly unsure of himself. Of course he doesn’t remember it, you think to yourself as the two vortigaunts funnel into the elevator shaft, it was only a few minutes before he took his head wound. “Should I?”

“Your team was trying to get into the elevator shaft down to the high security labs.” You explain. “They did something with the LIGA mk5, created anti-gravity around them that deflected projectiles. Can you get something like that on hand in case we need it?”

The physicist stays silent for a moment, as vorty begins to “crawl” up towards you in the zero gravity chamber. “Yeah… In these conditions I could get something like that. Want me to come up there?”

“Keep it on standby.” You respond, seeing the next vortigaunt move in, kicking itself off the ground towards you. “I might need it in there if things get too hot. Get it set up and be ready to hop up here.”

“Got it.” The physicist responds, before you hear him ask Kirchoff, “Hand me one of the graviphoton canisters.”

Holding yourself at the top of the elevator shaft as gravity very gently pulls you down, you sit there as the vortigaunts gather eagerly around the hatch, listening into the odd, extended pulse grow as the pain in your head becomes more defined, more and more of the morphine leaving your system with every second. The migraine has apparently been pounding this whole time, and just now you’re beginning to feel it punish your every thought. The other half of the migraine that’s now returning is the slow, twisting feeling of an anomalous muscle that’s beginning to plateau, meaning the anomaly is gonna begin soon.

As you listen to the sounds of combat just beyond the hatch, hearing Saulson murmuring to himself below while you hold off the vortigaunts from charging through until you know you have a backup. As you hear him working, he suddenly shouts up again, “I gotta ask again, are you really sure about going in there? We’re being led.”
(cont.)

>>4628710
(cont.)
A small part of your mind was worried he would insist on a response, and that fear came true, but you have an answer, even if it’s not a very pretty one.

“Saulson, you’re right. We are being led.” You say flatly, your voice echoing through the elevator shaft. “We’ve been led around since even before the damn experiment yesterday. I don’t see us going off the rails anytime soon.”

“Can’t wait to find the guy who built them.” Kirchoff chuffs.

Even from below, you can hear a deep breathy sigh being pushed through the filters of Saulson’s suit. “There’s gotta be more options.”

“Any decision is better than no decision.” Kirchoff responds.

“I don’t know.” Is all Saulson says, before he calls up. “The Liga’s ready.”

“Alright.” You respond. “Be ready to jump up here.” You look quickly towards the vortigaunts. “You two ready to move in?”

“Our kin await.” Vorty responds. “The oppenheimer must consider.”

You just nod, not exactly sure what he wants you to consider, and say “We’re going in. Be ready.” With no idea what could be on the other side, you carefully grab the bright red release lever on the hatch, brace yourself against the wall of the elevator shaft, and yank, feeling the xenian crystals that grew within the mechanisms turn to powder, leaking out of the side in the slight gravity and very slowly floating downwards. The lever creeks with every inch you turn it, the metals slowly dragging across each other until you hear a deep, springloaded chyunk within the hatch.

As the lever turns, the building pain in your head finally snaps, and below you, the cart on the ghostly elevator begins to rise. Most of the migraine is back now that the morphine has left your system, and it’s either at the best, or worst possible time that the constant thought-policing pain could return, depending on what’s beyond the now visible crack of blue and orange light shining through the center of the hatch. Squeezing your fingers into the hatch, you pull with both arms, further yanking it open, assisted by small whirring motors in your suit that kick in a second after the system detects your exertion.

“Warning, muscular assistance initiated.” The suit’s wispy voice tells you. “Sudden movements may cause joint damage.” The voice barely registers however as your suddenly blinded by a ring of light coming from the center of the chamber, your NVGs glaring white for the short second before you peel your stinging eyes away, while your ears are invaded by a massive, bassy humm and an odd thumping sound., interlaced with the grumbling chants of vortigaunts.
(cont.)

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>>4628712
(cont.)
https://youtu.be/ktNS-Ec-Y3o
You pull your optics up for a moment, looking back into the tunnel so the spots can leave your eyes. During that short moment, one vortigaunt scrambles out of the pipe, and as you try to grab it and prevent it from rushing into a possible ambush, you’re slapped in the face with the sight of a colossal black sphere, hovering ominously in the center of the test chamber, like a black hole frozen in time. Around the horizon of the black sphere is a glowing halo of orange, that radiates out into a cherenkov-blue glow. The entire damn anomaly is encased in this fluctuating haze that visibly ripples light as though it were the surface of a pond. Every few seconds, this surface is disrupted further. Green energy pulses across it’s horizon, then arcs out into random nearby surfaces on the walls of the test chamber, cascading across the surface seemingly harmlessly.

With every second you stare at the product of the resonance cascade, the faint pull of gravity grows slightly lighter. Making use of it, you unholster your pistol, and pull yourself into the chamber just as the unnamed vortigaunt did. As you slip through the hatch into a small track before the massive orb, you feel like you pass an invisible barrier, where gravity is much stronger. You’re not slammed to the ground, but you’re disoriented for a moment, as though you had been teleported from pluto to the surface of mars. Pulling your legs over the hatch, then keeping your eyes on the orb as you push yourself to your feet. The massive... black hole you would guess is so absorbing and terrifying that you don’t even notice the vortigaunts chanting in a circle around the thing. They all glow purple, the color swirling around their skin the same way vorty’s did when he protected you from the temporal anomalies all those times. They hold their hands up as they chant, somehow holding it? Containing it? Maintaining it? Expanding it? It seems to be slowly shrinking, in time with the relief you feel in the anomalous muscle in your head.

If this massive black orb is connected with the pain of the anomalous muscle in your then it’s definitely connected to the distortions in time you’ve seen around the place. Not to mention, as you watch it shrink, inch by inch, the vortigaunts carefully moving their odd gestures with it.
(cont.)

>>4628717
(cont.)
As though remembering that you’re in hostile territory, you peel your eyes away from the massive orb, right after you hear vorty crawl in behind you. Parting the vortigaunts, and at the end of the small “track” you’re standing in sits the cart you saw in the anomaly at the bottom of the elevator shaft, or at least half of it. The other half appears to have been vaporized by the rippling shell of the massive orb, left cleanly cut like a massive creature had taken a bite out of it. There won’t be any recovery of the original sample, such is clear.

As your eyes further dart around the room, you’re suddenly hit with a spike of adrenaline as you spot one, two… the whole damn chamber is surrounded by Xen Controller’s, floating around the orb, and eyeing it carefully, eyeing you menacingly. The instant you see the creature’s, you raise your revolver, and swear that you see one of the creatures flinch, even if only for the briefest of moments before it begins to raise its own arms, an orange glow coming from its hands.

Before you consider pulling the trigger, or retreating, suddenly Vorty’s clawed hand yanks the barrel of your Colt Python down, and in response, the Xen controllers surrounding you, the orb, and the collection of vortigaunts, all calm. The ones nearest to you however, still watch you with great intensity. Occasionally, one of the creatures releases an intimidating screech.

“The oppenheimer must consider.” The vortigaunt responds. “A precarious stalemate.”

In occasional spots along the walls of the chamber, orbs of electricity spark and roar, and suddenly, there are more aliens, hulking grunts along the walls, standing on them, as though gravity was another direction up there. You count four grunts, and seven xen controllers, only from where you’re standing.

“They fear our ransom.” The vortigaunt responds, before looking inwards to the massive glowing orb, surrounded by vortigaunts. You recognize some of these creatures. Under the glowing swirls of purple light, you can make out bruises and boot marks you put there. Each one of these creatures is a vortigaunt you decollared. Just now you notice that some of them have fallen to the ground, likely from exhaustion. Where they fell, a blurry, ghostly image of themselves now stands. “Supersymmetry must be maintained. A temporary solution.”
(cont.)

>>4628720
(cont.)
Getting another look around, knowing you must’ve overlooked things with every sense that isn’t taste and smell overwhelmed by the odd situation, you get a look at the machinery itself. Right now, you’re standing where you would imagine they would insert the sample into whatever massive machine used to be in the place of the large orb. Two, at least two from where you’re standing, pincer like arms have fallen dead to the ground, their base eaten by the massive orb, and where they once attached to the rest of the machine still glows white hot.

At the ceiling of this massive orange metal chamber, you can tell something heavy once hung from the ceiling like a chandelier, because a massive gash sits, exposing gears, wires, motors, and pumps. Crawling around within them, you can just barely spot eyes. Massive, orange, and beady feline pupils glow in against the black steel and concrete background. You recognize the eyes. Shocktroopers are sitting in the area above. Watching. It’s hard to tell precisely from this distance, but you also swear that you can see something else behind there. Another eye perhaps, big, green and round, not as illuminated as the rest. Your rational mind tells you that it's nothing, just a piece of the otherworldly machines built by black mesa, but you don’t feel easy about an ounce of this.

Taking one final look behind you, you spot a large observatory window, placed strategically to overlook the chamber. It appears to have been hit by a missile at one point, with shards of blast door embedded into the wall, and charred orange paint surrounding it. Interesting you much more however is the black silhouette you see within. It looks vaguely human, as it stands overlooking the scene. However, as you look at it, it just seems to disappear. The light reflecting from behind is glaring, and the distance and angle are so poor, that rationally it would make sense that you just weren’t able to make out some quick movement. That doesn’t alleviate your fears here.

Finally, to your right, a massive blast door has been left partially open. The only intended entrance in and out of this test chamber, it seems. Beyond it, you can see long dried blood, mixed in with new fluids, and biomatter. A light, yellow glow comes from the airlock chamber just beyond the blast door. Small black spots in the walls show that they have been torn, or perhaps eaten away by something tunneling through.

You take another look towards the massive, pulsing orb, still clinging tightly to your gun. “Our ransom.” The words Vorty used to describe it, as well as “A temporary solution.”

“Do you have a plan here Vorts?” You ask.
(cont.)

>>4628722
(cont.)
You don’t know what this thing is, but you can tell it’s powerful, just by the way the aliens are looking at it. Every second you glance at it, the migraine pounds at your skull like a viking with a warhammer.

“The Oppenheimer must consider.” The vortigaunt responds. No, it doesn't, the back of your brain whispers, Maybe it brought you here for that very reason. Still, they seem to have some grasp on the thing, it's hard to imagine these creatures not having any ideas. “The Oppenheimer must choose.” The creature corrects himself. You should consider your actions down here very carefully. That thing is ominous, instilling an instinctual fear of impending doom just sitting there, and the Vorts and their former masters seem to be in a very unstable standoff. It feels like you’re standing inside a planet-killing powderkeg with every moment that passes.

>Get Saulson and the Liga up here right now, and get his scientific advice, letting him do the LIGA and multi-spectrum scans.
>Get Kirchoff up here, and very, very quietly start discussing how to clear these things out of here.
>Point out what’s above to both the vorts, and the Xen controllers. Make sure everyone is aware of the shocktroopers stalking you from above.
>Try to call out to whoever you say up above, in the overview area. They seemed human, so there’s a chance they’re friendly.
>Call out to the xen controllers, and see if you get an answer. Point to the orb, and ask, “What do you want here? Why?”
>Slowly approach that blast door, get a good look at what’s over there, hopefully no more of those tunneling creatures you saw earlier.
>You’re here, the objective is in sight. Scan it with your multi-spectrum goggles, then head right back down that hatch.
>Write in any ideas.
(Optionally, start questioning Vorty.)
>”So where the hell does this, ‘Temporal venting’ you talked about so much come in Vorts? Temporary solution? I thought that was your plan.”
>”Consider what, Vorts? Is this alien election season? What am I choosing here?”
>”Vorty, what are they doing with this? Is this thing… a bomb? Did your kin make it?”
>”I thought freeman was finishing this up soon? Shouldn’t these damn things be retreating? Protecting their god?”
>”Vorts, do you have any idea why…” tap your temple twice, “hates this thing so much?”
>Write in.

>>4628730
>Get Saulson and the Liga up here right now, and get his scientific advice, letting him do the LIGA and multi-spectrum scans.
>”So where the hell does this, ‘Temporal venting’ you talked about so much come in Vorts? Temporary solution? I thought that was your plan.”

>>4628730
>Get Saulson and the Liga up here right now, and get his scientific advice, letting him do the LIGA and multi-spectrum scans.
>”So where the hell does this, ‘Temporal venting’ you talked about so much come in Vorts? Temporary solution? I thought that was your plan.”
Very belated vote. I saw the massive wall of text, thought "I'll read that lot later" and just never got round to it.

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>>4628763
>>4631715
No worries man. I'm definitely getting a little carried away with some of these updates.
>Get Saulson and the Liga up here right now, and get his scientific advice, letting him do the LIGA and multi-spectrum scans.
>”So where the hell does this, ‘Temporal venting’ you talked about so much come in Vorts? Temporary solution? I thought that was your plan.”

You’re still uneasy about those creatures floating around you. You can say with absolute certainty that this little ceasefire isn’t over a change of heart. They’re staring at the object floating in the center like it was a ticking bomb, and Vorty described it as a “ransom.” The massive black orb itself intimidates you with its very presence, like it’s staring you down. You need to know what it is before it can be “ransomed,” if that’s what’s going to be what happens here.

“Saulson,” You say, leaning over the elevator hatch once again, seeing the anomalous visage of the sample cart still riding up to you slowly. “Get up here now, turn the LIGA on, but don’t make any sudden movements.”

Through the slowly ascending elevator, you see a space-helmet like gas mask poke into the elevator shaft, then shout “What’s going on?” echoing up to you much louder than you’re comfortable with.

“Aliens, not yet hostile, and... “ You turn to look at the massive floating orb once again, before continuing with the best description you can find the words for “Some sort of black hole.”

“What?” He responds, before cautiously stepping into the downright near zero-gravity environment, then kicking off the floor, carefully guiding himself up towards the chamber. When he reaches the top, you hold out a hand and immediately pull the physicist into the chamber. The difference in gravity between the chamber and the elevator are getting a lot smaller as you become lighter. For a moment, Saulson doesn’t even seem to notice the vortigaunt’s ransom, as he’s nearly thrown from the unexpected weightlessness, and you have to sink your feet into the floors many jagged edges or vents in order to hold him down. When both of his feet are slowly in the ground however, you don’t even need to see his face under the darkened visor of his old suit to tell that he’s baffled. His entire head looks right over yours, towards the massive, thirty foot wide anomaly in the center of the resonance cascade.

Not letting him get mesmerized by a whole in the laws of physics, you quietly remind him, “No sudden movements, turn the LIGA on. We’re surrounded.”
(cont.)

>>4631894
(cont.)
His whole body tenses up, and the civilian freezes for a moment before quickly slinging the massive piece of equipment around and shakily thumbing one of the buttons on the LIGA, and you nearly knocked off your feet as the entire world seems to shift around you, the rapid change of gravity in this place throwing your inner ear for a loop. Thankfully, the unfelt weight of a suit featuring sheet metal and industrial batteries makes it easier for you to stay planted on the ground, as Saulson finally begins to pry his eyes away from the massive monstrosity of science before you, and now is jumping at every set of alien’s he sees glaring at him in the strange standoff.

“Why aren’t they attacking us?” He asks, beginning to feel for his gun on his holster.

“The vorts said it’s a standoff.” You say, pointing towards the colossal orb in the center of the room. You nod towards the orb in the center of the room, while reaching towards your equipment belt. “They’re afraid of that. Stay calm. I need you to get some readings of it.” You pull the multi-spectrum goggles off your belt, and hand them over.

“Got it.” Saulson responds, with a burst of confidence. “I’ll uh… I’ll need to turn the LIGA off for gravitic readings. It won’t last long anyway.”

“Make sure it’s quick, and be ready to turn it back in a moment.” You respond, before turning back to Vorty. The creature looks up to you expectantly, the blue glow and yellow halo reflecting in its massive, cyclopean eye. “Vorts.” You start, before you’re interrupted.

“The Oppenheimer must consider.” It repeats. “They fear our ransom.”

“So where the hell does this temporal venting come in?” You respond, still not understanding what’s going on. “You said you had a temporary solution. I thought that was your plan.”

“A temporary solution.” The creature repeats, his voice barely discernible over the sound of his kin chanting around the massive, black orb. He waits a moment, pearing behind you as the last of gravity peters out around you. Vorty raises a curved talon towards the elevator shaft, and following it, you begin to see the repeat of the sample cart budding it’s head through the rim of the hatch.“Temporal venting. Anomalies.” Vorty turns back to his kin. They’re looking increasingly exhausted as the repeat slows. In a few of the creatures, their legs are shaking below them, as though the aliens could collapse at any point. The ones that have already collapsed, are duplicated by the anomalies, standing where the creatures once stood.
(cont.)

(cont.)
“Fascinating.” You hear Saulson mutter as he’s looking through the various settings on the goggles. He pulls the goggles up, then stares at the orb in thought. “By god,” He mutters to himself as he comes to some revelation, quickly pulling the liga up towards him, eliciting threatening screeches from the various Xen controllers surrounding you all.

“Supersymmetry must maintain.” Vorty responds. It points to the various repeats within the room once again, before losing its balance as gravity shifts once more. “A temporary solution.” Finally, Vorty looks to the massive orb. “The metastability cannot remain. The Oppenheimer must consider”

“He’s right.” Saulson responds, now holding the screen of the LIGA right up against his face, as though that would cause it to give more accurate readings. “This is… this is mostly chameleonic matter. Way heavier. Probably close to the stuff that pulls galaxies apart.” HIs voice shakes as he explains it. “This shouldn’t exist. It should uh… dissipate… violently. It makes no goddamn sense.”

“You have any idea how it hasn’t exploded?” You ask.

“Uh… erhh... “ He looks around for a minute. “Aliens... I don’t know.” Is all he can muster, as he begins to slowly step back from the massive orb of dark matter.

Vorty once again points to the cart, and says, “Temporal venting,” just as it begins to slowly fade, and you all become truly weightless, at the same time the massive wanes to it’s lowest point. “A temporary solution.” The vortigaunt points up towards the Xen controllers. “The oppenheimer must consider the ransom.”

“This much of the stuff doesn’t happen just from a resonance cascade, it wouldn’t make sense. It’s… it’s uhh… it’s gotta zero point energy.” Saulson rambles, turning to you. “Magnusson was right, the old bastard. This is… probably enough energy to… cook the solar system you can’t just vent it...”

“Saulson, slow down.” You interrupt. “Take a deep breath. What’s going on?”
(cont.)

>>4631904
(cont.)
The physicist is totally silent and still for a moment, looking at nothing in particular. For that brief instant, unable to see his face, one might’ve been able to confuse him for a mannequin. He then looks over to Vorty, then stares at his kin, just as another one of the poor creatures falls to their knees. “They’ve been the ones creating the- the… time repeats.” He explains, nodding to nothing very slightly, before looking back to you. “It’s why we haven’t exploded yet. The energy required for each fourth dimensional wormhole is insane.” He starts to shout. “It’s how they ‘re keeping this whole damn thing in check. Time travel is the only thing that could possibly consume enough energy… efficiently enough not to… fucking… crack the continent open!” The physicist’s voice echoes across the chamber, and incredibly irritated alien voices respond. Every time the creatures anger, you fear vorty’s little cold war will erupt into a brawl.

“A temporary solution.” Vorty repeats once more. “The oppenheimer must consider.”

As Saulson’s revelation sinks in on you, the planetoid of dark matter floating before you becomes all the more ominous. If he’s right, the only thing stopping this thing from atomizing you is the increasingly thinning ring of vortigaunts around you, who are turning all that energy into temporal anomalies. The worst place this thing can be is on earth, but you don’t know if any humans have the capacity to do that, and finding out if there are would be a commitment considering how deep you are in a radio-deadzone.

“Maybe… maybe they could do something?” Saulson says, looking up at the Xen Controller. “They look like they want it. Maybe they’ll take it back to their homeworld and we won’t have to worry about it.”

You give him a glare, still suspicious of his memory, but you’re not sure about any of this.

>”Vorts, why are the Xen controllers here? What about this ransom they’re scared of? Are you threatening to blow us all up? Do they want to take this thing for themselves?”
>”We have to get this information to the CIA. Maybe they can contain it… or at least get us more vortigaunts.”
>”Saulson, you’re the most qualified scientist here. You have to be able to think of a better alternative. You said it yourself. Do you need any other resources to figure this out?”
>Whisper to Saulson to make sure the LIGA stays on, then tell Kirchoff to get up here, so you can quietly discuss going to war with these Xen Controllers.
>”Stay here, both of you. I saw someone up in the observation room.” Take advantage of the microgravity to get up to the blown out observation room and investigate the black figure you saw up there.
>”Stay here. There’s aliens in the cieling, not attacking. I want to investigate.” Use the new micro-gravity to move for the ceiling of the chamber and investigate the shocktrooper eyes.
>Write in.

>>4631906
>”Vorts, why are the Xen controllers here? What about this ransom they’re scared of? Are you threatening to blow us all up? Do they want to take this thing for themselves?”
Then
>”Stay here, both of you. I saw someone up in the observation room.” Take advantage of the microgravity to get up to the blown out observation room and investigate the black figure you saw up there.
Wonder if it was another CIA agent...or our mutual friend.

>>4631906
>”Saulson, you’re the most qualified scientist here. You have to be able to think of a better alternative. You said it yourself. Do you need any other resources to figure this out?”

>”Stay here, both of you. I saw someone up in the observation room.” Take advantage of the microgravity to get up to the blown out observation room and investigate the black figure you saw up there.

>>4631983
>>4634107
>”Vorts, why are the Xen controllers here? What about this ransom they’re scared of? Are you threatening to blow us all up? Do they want to take this thing for themselves?”
>”Saulson, you’re the most qualified scientist here. You have to be able to think of a better alternative. You said it yourself. Do you need any other resources to figure this out?”
>”Stay here, both of you. I saw someone up in the observation room.” Take advantage of the microgravity to get up to the blown out observation room and investigate the black figure you saw up there.

“Saulson, you’re the most qualified person here.” You respond. “You’ve got to be able to think of some sort of better alternative.”

The physicist stutters for a minute, as though enthralled by the massive ball of dark matter in the center of the chamber. “You can’t… the whole scenario is impossible… there’s no… you could spend years studying this.”

“We don’t have years, but you said it yourself, there’s gotta be more options than what we’re being presented. Do you need any resources to figure this out?”

“Uhh... “ He says with a gravel in his voice that sounds as if the consideration is being ripped out of him, before stuttering once again. “Just.. give me a minute to think it through…do some more scans... the only other thing I can think of is… give me a minute.”

You nod, pulling away for a moment and thinking about what Saulson said earlier. If Saulson is right, the xen controllers currently surrounding you want the massive ball of dark matter in the center of the room, and you can see why. Kleiner’s book said Zero Point energy could boil the world's oceans, and this was the product of that same stuff you saw distort time and space around you.

“Vorts, why are these things here.” You say, still holding onto your gun as you look around them. “What’s this ransom they’re so scared of?”

“Supersymmetry must be maintained.” The vortigaunt responds. “The controllers agree. They fear our ransom.”

“What do you mean?” You tell the creature, suddenly jumping slightly, when yet another xen controller pops into the fray. “Are you threatening to blow everyone up?”

“This one’s kin maintains.” Vorty responds. “Impossible posthumously. They cannot attack.”\

“So they’re not attacking, because they’re afraid of you… dropping it?”

The creature nods, then adds, “They seek negotiation. They fear our ransom.”

“What do they want?” You ask.

The vortigaunt takes a brief look towards Saulson, then when it confirms the physicist is too lost in thought to notice, points towards the massive orb of dark matter. It seems the physicist was right, hell, it might’ve been planted in the man’s head by those very same creatures, they want the orb. “What for?” You ask.
(cont.)

>>4637232
(cont.)
“A marvel within the borderworld. The final stroke leaves vulnerabilities.” The vortigaunt says. “Hunted. A common enemy. Little trust.”

You just nod, knowing that you’re dipping into increasingly vague territories. Supposedly, the Xen Controllers want this orb of dark matter. They’re on their last legs, and if Freeman does whatever the lambda team sent him to do, they’ll supposedly be down for the count. You’re not exactly excited about giving them something that could blow up the universe, but you’re also not a fan of leaving it on earth.

You consider this as you pear at the creatures around you once again, seeing them floating above you in a circle. They’ve slowly increased in numbers, but thankfully, none have gotten too close to the blown out observation deck. Earlier inside, you saw a black silhouette within the space. You know Marietta and Wells were coming this way, alongside a pair of vortigaunts, so It’s possible what you saw was one of them, but it could’ve just as well been an anomaly, and the sighting also fits the style of your mutual friend.

“Vorts, Saulson, stay here both of you. I spotted someone in the observation room.” You plant your revolver in your holster, then push off the floor, vaguely in the direction of the window. “I’m gonna go check it out.” You add, as the micro-gravity of the chamber lets you drift away.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” The physicist responds, and you nod at him, from the increasing distance.

“Yeah, just focus on trying to figure out some way to fix this.” You say. As you slowly float above the floor of the chamber, ancient primal instincts in your brain shoot a chill through your spine, worried that at any moment gravity might just realize your tricks, and yank you back into the floor with a vengeance. Ignoring the sensation, you keep close eyes on the nearby Xen controllers, as they glare at you until you eventually approach the wall near the observation room window.

When you smack into the wall of the chamber just below the window, you grab at a broken piece of wall, careful not to reach into a bundle of wires, and throw yourself upwards, flinging past the opening and catching yourself on the jagged, top half of the blast door frame.With one hand, you pull yourself back down to look through, while grabbing at your silenced sidearm with the other.
(cont.)

>>4637233
(cont.)
You click the small button on the weapon’s flashlight, scanning the beam of light across the already lightly illuminated control room. Out of every destroyed, or blown apart thing you’ve seen since the resonance cascade, this small room exposed to ground zero tops them all. Metal wall panels and machinery casings have melted or dissolved off, and the wires and mechanisms they onces concealed have shattered, their parts spilt everywhere. Lightly sprinkled into the heaps of machinery lining a floor that no longer exists is clumps of rotting pieces of flesh or spots of long dried red blood. You’ve seen buildings in saudi-arabia that took direct hits from artillery-fire left in a better state than this.

Immediately clear that there’s nothing to be found here, you duck your head down, angle your body slightly, and push yourself into the room. To the left, and to the right are two doors, both of whom you can remember from your time as a security guard in this section. One leads into a room of technical monitoring and lab equipment, eventually wrapping back into the blast door down below, while the other takes you away from the test chamber.

With your flashlight raised, shining a beam of light into the busted glass sliding door, you approach the left side, to get an idea of what awaits you if you choose to go that way. The door itself has mostly fallen apart, with only a few thin pieces of frame hanging onto the rails. Just as you’re about to catch yourself on the door frame and poke your head through, something moves beyond it. For a brief second, you can make out a black, baggy silhouette in the beam of your flashlight, it’s body already drawn into the closest approximation of a martial arts kick possible while floating just off the ground. The figure’s boot swings upwards, taking you by surprise, and smacking you in the chest. You’re suddenly thrown up towards the ceiling, while your opponent is knocked back into the ground.

An instant later, after you bounced off the wall, you’re suddenly blinded by a flashlight on the end of an MP5. Thankfully, with the HEV suit, you’ve barely felt a thing.

“Freeman right?” Says the voice of Captain Wells. “Or… you one of the two ladies I heard on the radio?”

The black hazmat suited figure, the one that planted their boot on your chest, has begun to pry themselves off the floor. “Start talking.” Demands the voice of Marietta. “What’s that thing in the test chamber? What were you and your colleague talking about? Are you working with those aliens?” As she quickly draws her gun, lining the red laser sight on the large lambda symbol on your chest, she adds, “Answer me, and I’ll show you I’m a lot more fair than the marine corps.” It seems that, the suit protected you from Marietta’s kick, but also caused her to misidentify you.
(cont.)

>>4637235
(cont.)
>”It’s me, Gabby! Is this how you treat the science team when I’m not looking?” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you’re thinking of getting Saulson, and any other expertise to figure out a way to get rid of this thing.
>”Hold fire I’m CIA. My last suit was compromised… wish I had some damn spraypaint.” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you’re thinking of trying to call in the full resources of the CIA to fix this, or at least buy more time.
>”Jesus christ, drop your weapons. Situation’s way too delicate for this, it’s me Oppenheimer.” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you’re thinking of negotiating with the Xen controllers to take this time bomb off earth.
>”Gabriella Oppenheimer. I know the suit’s confusing but we don’t need to add more green on green here.” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you don’t like any of you’re options so far, and want to look for more.
>”Agent Oppenheimer, I’m friendly! You’re lucky I didn’t shoot you trying to kick me like that!” Don’t explain anything to Marietta yet, just bring their half of the party to Saulson and Vorty.
>Write in.

Shit I forgot my tripcode.

>>4637237
>”It’s me, Gabby! Is this how you treat the science team when I’m not looking?” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you’re thinking of getting Saulson, and any other expertise to figure out a way to get rid of this thing.

>>4637237
>”It’s me, Gabby! Is this how you treat the science team when I’m not looking?” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you’re thinking of getting Saulson, and any other expertise to figure out a way to get rid of this thing.
I don’t trust those controllers whatsoever with this thing. For all we know they could hold it over humanity’s head to enslave them for use against the combine, given how difficult it would be to transport this entropy bomb to the combine homeworld.

Are we still alive?

>>4640391
I am, and I do apologize for the frankly terrible rate of updates lately, class and work have been killing me.

>>4640408
Not to worry, I was just hoping you hadn’t abandoned the quest. I really enjoy it.

>>4637474
>>4637541
>”It’s me, Gabby! Is this how you treat the science team when I’m not looking?” Explain to her what you’ve learned, and tell her you’re thinking of getting Saulson, and any other expertise to figure out a way to get rid of this thing.

“It’s me, Gabby! I’m on your side, weapons down!” You immediately shout out, holding one hand empty and open, while the other has your silenced pistol by the barrel, on clear display. As the two of them beging to lower their weapons, with what you damn well hope is an apolegetic face under their gasmask, you ask, “Is that how you treat every scientist while I’m not looking?”

“You were armed,” Marietta responds, “and not fighting those things,” she adds, looking out the observation port. “Thought they had you… mind controlled or something like that. Wanted to be careful anyway.”

“The hell were you doing out there?” Wells says, with a tinge of suspicion in his voice. “Why weren’t they attacking you?”

“Those vorts out there were freed.” You begin explaining. The twisting pain in your head is slowly starting to return, and with it, you can feel gravity’s claws beginning to tug you once again, except this time, it’s sideways, directly away from the orb in the center of the room. “That big orb in there is… according to Dr. Saulson who we met up with, enough dark Matter in one place to wipe out the planet. The controller’s aren’t attacking because they want it for themselves. I don’t trust them for a second.”

“Jesus.” Marietta exclaims. “We can’t handle this alone down here there’s…” She carefully pokes her head out the window of the observation room. “We need to get in contact with the rest of the CIA. We need to secure this somewhere away from Black Mesa.”

“I don’t know if that’s our best option.” You respond. “Someone would have to make their way back to the surface to try that. I’ve asked Saulson to think of a plan. He’s the most qualified person we have on hand… unless you’ve recovered anyone else?”


“Nothing other than bodies.” Welles responds.

“Johannesburg.” Marietta clarifies. “We didn’t have any other contact with the physicists.”

Any contact they remember, you think. There’s no evidence to suggest that, but it’s still something to keep in the back of your mind. Hell, your own memories could be compromised.

“But… we can’t leave this just to one physicist.” Marietta continues. “It’s… insane. There’s too much at stake… if he even understands it fully.”

“Can’t always wait for command to leave the armchair.” Wells quips.

“Not the time Wells.” Marietta responds, eliciting a glare that, even through Welle’s gasmask, tells you the man wasn’t joking. “We can’t risk this. The CIA has resources, might be able to pull it somewhere else and dissect the thing.”
(cont.)

>>4641896
(cont.)
“Well why keep it on earth longer than we have to?” Wells interrupts. “We can’t just leave it sitting here. ‘Sides… you know what’s gonna happen if they get a hold of it...”

“What will happen, Wells?” Marietta responds, as if personally insulted.

“Said it yourself, they’re gonna poke it like a dead body in th-” Before Wells can finish his sentence, he’s suddenly interrupted by Saulson shouting from down below.

“Oppenheimer!” The physicist calls. “Thought of something that might work.”

“All clear up there?” Shouts the voice of Kirchoff.

“Area’s secure.” Welles responds, looking out the window. When you glance down into the main test chamber, you see Saulson and Kirchoff both pushing themselves up towards the observation room, Vorty following close behind them.

“Wells, signal the vorts to come over here.” Marietta says, before turning to you as the marine pokes his head out the door. “Are you sure you can trust Saulson?” You can barely make out what she’s saying as she whispers through the heavy filter of a military grade gas mask. “We’ve got no background on him.”

As she says that, Saulson begins to pull himself over the lip of the observatory window, and a moment later, Kirchoff comes with him. As the migraine begins to pulse harder and harder, you have to keep pulling yourself back to the observation room. Before the physicist fully enters the room, he asks, “Who are you?” looking nervously towards Marietta, Wells, and a second later, the two Vortigaunts you remember sending off with them as they shuffle through the door, slowly dropping to the wall opposite the window.

“Federal agents.” Marietta says vaguely, glancing towards you. Saulson stays quiet for a moment, then nods, and slips through the window frame. “You said you had some sort of a plan to fix this?”


“Maybe. I think there’s a way we could create a wormhole down here. We’ve still got a considerable amount of exotic matter. In normal conditions it’s too dilute to do anything beyond the microscopic scale but down here..” For a brief moment, he struggles to find the words to express it to someone who hasn’t spent their lives peeling apart the secrets of the universe. “... it’s like we’ve been running on low power the whole time. Every fermion down here is like a lightbulb about to blow out.”

“So what are we gonna do with these fermions?’” You ask, trying to keep him on track.

“Right. That exotic matter you recovered… when mixed right it’s known to create a… a… what we call a Narbacular burrowing reaction. Atoms weigh down space time while also pushing it open… pulling other atoms in and continuing the process until you uh… run out of fuel and make a black hole that might… pop like a firecracker or run out of space to burrow and make a wormhole.”
(cont.)

>>4641897
(cont.)
“And could that send this thing away from earth?” You ask.

“No… uh- maybe. Probably.” He responds, suttering before suddenly taking a breath, collecting his thoughts, and speaking confidently. “Not on it's own. Even in these conditions these wormholes wouldn’t normally be much bigger than snowflakes, but this place is flooded with negative energy uh…for our purposes that’s like… ungravity. It’ll pull any wormhole inside apart. The wormholes will combine until they're big enough to take the whole test chamber away.”

“And where will it end up?” Wells asks.

“I… don’t know.” He responds. “The natural path of least resistance would probably place it outside of the solar system but… with the resonance cascade and all the other anomalies it might oscillate through time or… slip through xen and smack into another universe. Depending on how fast the reaction occurs and… how fast we run… it could pull us with it.”

Both Kirchoff and Wells give each other uneasy looks, as you ask “How do we cause this reaction?”

“What appears to be left of the equipment might be enough.” Saulson responds. “The rotors and emitters from the machine were destroyed by the dark matter… so we could... crawl up there, manually inject material into the system, and then disperse it. It’ll probably be too much to sen everyone up there… space is limited.” You remember looking up into those systems, spying the eyes of aliens dotting the breach inside.

“You don’t sound very confident.” Marietta points out.

“I’m not.” Saulson responds. “Even… simulating like this would require a… month’s worth of calculations.”

Saulson’s plan isn’t comforting. By his own admission, it’s made on the spot and filled with uncertainties, but on the other hand, it doesn’t leave the fate of the world in any one’s hands except the laws of physics. It won’t be used as a weapon by the aliens against you… or god knows who else, and it won’t be left on earth for the United States government to poke and prod, the same way Black Mesa poked and prodded at the dividing line between earth and Xen.
(cont.)

>>4641039
I'm really glad that you enjoy man, it's good to hear. I can promise I wouldn't abandon this quest without any warning, and it would take a lot for me to totally put it down. While I might not show it with the abyssmal update speed, I still do really enjoy writing for this quest when I have time.
>>4641905
(cont.)
>To hell with tight spaces, move up to the top of the test chamber, and get ready to storm the mechanism.
>Split the team up You, Saulson and Marietta move into the mechanisms to work on the process, while the rest move to guard the breach at the top of the chamber.
>Have Saulson brief Marietta on the systems inside so she can do it stealthily, while you give her a distraction.
>Tell Vorty to talk to his kin. The vorts are good in tight spaces, so see if he can convince some to step off constraining the Dark Matter to move into the mechanisms while your team protects them.
>Hand Marietta the memory card to the multi spectrum goggles, and your laptop, and tell her to get to the surface and contact the CIA with Wells, while you execute Saulson’s plan.
>Now that you hear Saulson’s actual plan, maybe you ought to leave this to the CIA. Start planning your way back up to radio contact with your handler, so he can send in a full analytical team.
>On second thought, discuss with Vorty how you can hand this damn thing over to the aliens.
>Write in any alternate ideas, or anything you’d like to say to your team.

>>4641919
>Hand Marietta the memory card to the multi spectrum goggles, and your laptop, and tell her to get to the surface and contact the CIA with Wells, while you execute Saulson’s plan.
>Tell Vorts of your decision. "I've considered. Humanity needs to be the one that handles its own fate, and it's our job to clean up the mess we made. You understand, right? Just keep a lookout for interference for us - I get the feeling that our mutual friend might try something this close to the finish line."

>Hand Marietta the memory card to the multi spectrum goggles, and your laptop, and tell her to get to the surface and contact the CIA with Wells, while you execute Saulson’s plan.
>Tell Vorts of your decision. "I've considered. Humanity needs to be the one that handles its own fate, and it's our job to clean up the mess we made. You understand, right? Just keep a lookout for interference for us - I get the feeling that our mutual friend might try something this close to the finish line."

>>4641943
>>4642731
>Hand Marietta the memory card to the multi spectrum goggles, and your laptop, and tell her to get to the surface and contact the CIA with Wells, while you execute Saulson’s plan.
>Tell Vorts of your decision. "I've considered. Humanity needs to be the one that handles its own fate, and it's our job to clean up the mess we made. You understand, right? Just keep a lookout for interference for us - I get the feeling that our mutual friend might try something this close to the finish line."

“Saulson, you still got the goggles I gave you?” You ask, glancing over to the physicist, seeing him nod. “Pull out the memory card, and hand them to Marietta, those scans will be mission critical if this doesn’t go to plan.” As Saulson fumbles for the goggles, you turn to Marietta. “You and Wells make your way up to the surface, get in contact with the Central Intelligence Agency, and if we don’t return, get them to send a team to make sure this thing is gone.” As you say that, you pull your bag around your back, unzipping it, and sliding out the advanced computer the CIA gave you, currently housed in a protective kevlar casing.

“Got it.” Marietta responds as she grabs the memory card from Saulson. “Just be careful down here. I’ll try to have eggheads inbound within thirty minutes.” She kneels down next to you, takes the laptop case. Flicking one of the latches off, she pulls the container open slightly, and slips the memory card inside. “They’re gonna demand to see what’s here if you’re successful or not.”

That’s if the facility’s still here, or even the planet is still here, you think. Wiping away your nerve, you just say “Good luck up there.”

Marietta nods, and finally signals for Wells to come with her as she pushes herself off the piece of jutting out machinery she’s hanging onto, and falls slowly in the direction of the door. Wells follows soon after.

“If we’re really doing this, we should get moving.” Saulson says, as the two vorts that came with Marietta and Wells begin to crawl “up” and out of the observation room.

“Hold on a second.” You tell the physicist. “Vorts,” The creature’s hunchback head and neck curls to look around its shoulder at you.“I’ve considered. Humanity needs to clean up its own mess, handle our own fate. You understand?”

The vortigaunt nods, and its two kin, currently looking down on you from the ledge that was once the frame to the observatory window, say, “Agreed.”

“Good.” You respond, kicking off the wall beneath you, and climbing up towards them. “Keep a lookout for interference while we’re working.” You lean closer to Vorty, keeping your words quiet. “I get the feeling that our mutual friend might try something. We’re too close to the finish line to let that happen.”
(cont.)

>>4646352
(cont.)
“An enforced agreement.” Vorty responds. “Unless otherwise occupied.”

You feel like you don’t grasp the full meaning, but he seems to be responding positively, so you nod and wave for Saulson and Kirchoff to follow. As the tightening pain in your head increases, you’re able to once again stand on surfaces, but it seems that gravity is not just pushing down, but every direction away from the orb, letting you walk on the side of the massive cylindrical chamber. Standing on the side of the wall, while also only a tenth of your own weight, disorients you with every step as you walk around the observation deck window frame and start to move upwards. Kirchoff and Saulson begin to pull themselves up and over, following after you.

“The first thing we’re gonna need to do is hotwire the emergency power into the conductive pipes. Otherwise the exotic matter will be expended on the pipes.” Saulson explains, while you keep your pistol in your hands, getting threatening glares from each and every one of the Xen Controllers surrounding you. A few of the creature’s begin to screech angrily. A few of them begin to look down towards the vortigaunts surrounding the massive suspended orb of Dark Matter, slowly floating down closer.

“Within this one’s abilities.’ Vorty mutters, demonstrating his abilities with a slight zap in his claws.

“You’re aware of how much power this system requires?” Saulson asks.

“Close communication with Isaac Kleiner.” Vorts retorts.

“Agreed.” The other two vortigaunts state in a grumbling chorus, small sparks of electricity coming from their talons.

“We’re damn lucky you freed these things.” Saulson says, staring up towards the orb of Dark Matter.

“The standoff escalates.” An unnamed vortigaunt adds, pointing towards the Xen Controllers beginning to slowly move towards you.

“Keep moving.” You say, hoping to get a good look into the breach of the system before any fighting starts. Jogging up ahead, you approach the ninety degree angle where the wall meets the ceiling, gravity now holding you at a steep angle. Every step you take is with care to ensure you don’t fall, and slide down the side of the chamber loudly. Much closer to the hole in the ceiling where the machinery of the anti-mass spectrometer sits cut off at the rim of a white hot hole, you look up and into the rim of the nest of pipes, seeing the xen controllers float towards it. “Hold.” You say, knowing getting any closer to the machinery will have them firing on you. Small flickers of yellow light radiate from the coupled hands of the Xen Controllers. “Saulson, you got any insight about the machine that could help here?”
(cont.)

>>4646353
(cont.)
“Uhhh… lotta tight spaces to hide inside?” Saulson responds. You could’ve guessed that. You also remember seeing glimpses of large, reptilian eyes each the size of truck tires moving within. You know the shocktroopers aren’t small, so they won’t be using those tight spaces, but if their species is militarized they could have support that could, you don’t know much about those things yet.

Vorts suddenly chimes in behind you, “The standoff escalates.” The creature points down to his kin below, most of whom are now eclipsed by the massive black orb in the center of the chamber. The Xen controllers are beginning to encroach around them. One of the vortigaunts steps away from his post containing the black orb, looking up to the Xen Controller, with occasional sparks in his hand. You don’t doubt that more of the vortigaunts are following suit out of view, judging by the sudden increases of your geiger counter in instantaneous steps.


>Have yourself, Kirchoff, and the three vortigaunts all circle around Saulson, then begin to approach the breach while firing on any threats.
>Blitzkrieg the machinery. Have Kirchoff and the two unnamed Vorts light up the approaching Xen Controllers, while you throw a flashbang into the breach and Saulson and Vorty run in.
>You, Saulson, and Kirchoff stay put, but tell Saulson to brief vorty on what needs to be done inside. Have the three creatures move into the machine, while you keep everything off their backs.
>Send Kirchoff and the two unnamed Vortigaunts down to the floor of the chamber, and tell him to organize the vorts into something defensive.
>Tell Kirchoff to handle Saulson, and the machinery, while you take Vorty down to the floor to ensure the vortigaunts can hold the Dark Matter sphere uninterrupted.
>Tell the rest to stay put, while you and Vorty move forwards. Keep your weapon down, and shout, “I know you’ve read enough heads to understand me. There’s aliens in the machinery. Your enemies, right? Help us clear them out, we might take up your deal.” (Feel free to write in anything that might help convince the Xen Controllers, including bold faced lies.)
>Write in.

If I forget my tripcode again I'm sending myself to Nova Prospekt.

>>4646357
>Tell the rest to stay put, while you and Vorty move forwards. Keep your weapon down, and shout, “I know you’ve read enough heads to understand me. There’s aliens in the machinery. Your enemies, right? Help us clear them out, we might take up your deal.” (Feel free to write in anything that might help convince the Xen Controllers, including bold faced lies.)
I think we could make the argument that the Shocktroopers are clearly waiting to come in and finish off whoever remains after the standoff, so it's in both of our best interests to eliminate them. We can also say that despite the inter-species hostility between humans and controllers during this first encounter event, we're willing to provide safe harbor and cooperate with them in the future - we've seen visions of what happened to them and what awaits humanity, so we must work together if we are to have any hope of surviving what's to come. No experimentations, no servitude. Two equals working together to eliminate a grave threat, and then parting ways. Perhaps even one day finding and punishing the deceiver that lead to their mutilation.

To be honest, as much as I hate them, I honestly would be willing to work with them against the combine. It'd be...interesting, to have Resistance Controllers, if that's a potential future at all.

>>4646734
If it's even possible, and we can figure out a way to do it, I'd be all for that future. And with the way time is down here right now, Freeman may have already killed Nihilanth, leaving them with not a whole lot of options. Unless I'm getting the timeline of events mixed up.

>>4646734
>>4647646
>Tell the rest to stay put, while you and Vorty move forwards. Keep your weapon down, and shout, “I know you’ve read enough heads to understand me. There’s aliens in the machinery. Your enemies, right? Help us clear them out, we might take up your deal.”
>make the argument that the Shocktroopers are clearly waiting to come in and finish off whoever remains after the standoff
>also say that despite the inter-species hostility between humans and controllers during this first encounter event, we're willing to provide safe harbor and cooperate with them in the future

“Kirchoff, Saulson, stay here.” You command, looking up ahead while an idea blooms in your head. “I’m gonna try talking to them. If this goes south, Kirchoff, you make sure Saulson gets in the machine, and gets this going. Vorts, you’re with me.”

“You’re gonna talk to them?” Kirchoff responds, sounding baffled by the very thought.

“Well, they wanted to make a deal just a minute ago.” You respond. “It’s been sounding like their backs are up against the wall, I think we can abuse that.”

“They’re aliens.” He exclaims.

“They’re intelligent.” You respond. “Besides, I’m not selling the planet, I just want them to clear out their competitors for us.”

“Then they kill us.” The marine responds.

“Kirchoff, they’re desperate. If they could, they would’ve.” You respond. “They wouldn’t be hesitating if they weren’t ready to talk.”

“You really wanna try this now?” The marine asks. In a way, he’s right. These aliens haven’t particularly shown themselves other than being open to diplomacy other than supposedly asking you to hand over the Dark Matter for god knows what reason. It’s the least tested method on hand.

“Either that or we fight them all off ourselves.” You explain. “No less dangerous with a civilian in tow and a time bomb in the room. I’ve made my decision. Vorts, with me.” You quickly wave the creatures forwards, keeping your gun low as you approach the point where the wall meets the ceiling, looking directly up and into the eyes of the Xen Controllers. The vorst, much more skilled in moving through this odd gravity walk around you, easily taking a step onto a ninety degree surface, and walking on it as if it were only a small incline. Tentatively, you follow them across, your inner ear spinning as the entire world seems to rotate around this small step. For a brief moment, you lose your balance, quickly grabbing it again as the suit whispers, “Warning, kinetic shift detected.”
(cont.)

>>4651040
(cont.)
When you get a grasp on which direction gravity is pulling you, now directly towards the ceiling of this massive chamber where the melted machinery of the anti-mass spectrometer lays in pools of now-hardened metals and shattered fragments of the casing. Just beyond that mess, blooming up like a hill you know is a hole that will take you into the inner workings of the systems. Floating above it, or perhaps below based on where you’re standing are the Xen Controllers, seemingly unaffected by the Dark Matter orb’s antigravity as they float upside down from your perspective. They begin to charge a glowing orange energy within their small, spindly hands while eliciting threatening screeches and screams towards you.

You keep your gun low, but don’t holster it just yet, shouting out to the creatures, “I don’t want to fight you. Can we negotiate?” The creatures stop screeching, but they also don’t lower their guard just yet. “I know you’ve looked through our heads, you understand me correct?”

They sit totally silent, but you suddenly feel a tearing pain as something worms against the infinitesimal pinhole in your left temple, then suddenly stops right when the voice of an unnamed vortigaunt starts.

“Yess…Yesss... ” The vortigaunt says. “This one translates.”

You look to the creature confused for a moment, then realize what that painful sensation in your skull was. The creatures were attempting to talk to you mentally, but for some reason you couldn’t understand, and the vortigaunt could.

“There’s aliens in the machinery. Big beady eyes, your enemies right?” You begin, trying to ensure you're on the same foot.

Once again, there’s a wriggling pain in the side of your head, as the translator vortigaunt says, “They do not comprehend… they do not comprehend… the hive only spreads… you comprehend… you comprehend…” The vortigaunts words are slurred as he speaks, as if he’s not “translating” so to speak, but simply recreating whatever voice is in his head, sound for sound. You’re not sure if the creature is complimenting your intelligence or accusing you of snooping.

“They’re dangerous.” You add, “I know we can agree on that.”

“They will be repelled… they will be repelled… destruction repels...” The translating vortigaunt replies, as the pain once again wriggles against your skull, this time getting a little deeper than the last flare. “They soon collapse… they soon collapse.”

As you wince slightly from the pain, Vorty suddenly says, “An uneasy agreement. The Shepherd guided.”
(cont.)

>>4651043
(cont.)
Steeling yourself, you ask, “Shepherd? One of the Marines right? Is he here? Now?”

“His plans… we do not question… his plans…” The translating vort responds with another wave of cascading pain.

“If we fight, can you say with confidence that they will be gone before the dust settles?” You ask, with every ounce of willpower pushing back the primal instinct to either run or kill these things, as their “voice” drills into your head. “Because otherwise they’re gonna pick off whoever’s left, which will be the end of our species.”

“He always wins… he always wins…” The translating vortigaunt says.

“That doesn’t answer the question.” You say, trying to maintain some sense of dominance in this room.

“Decieve… you will deceive… you will...” The vortal translator mumbles. “Decieve you… he will deceive you…” These creatures are so alien, you can’t tell who's coming out on top. It’s like negotiating with the criminally insane.

“I’m not here to deceive you.” You respond. “We’ve been hostile up until now, I get it, but I’ve got a glimpse of what’s coming and I know you’re running out of options. If you’re willing to help us out here, we’ll give you safe harbor. No experiments, no servitude. My species isn’t gonna even want to poke around where we’re not wanted after all of this.”

“Stop… you cannot stop… you cannot stop… them… cannot stop them... “ The translator grumbles as the wriggling pain tears across your face.

“Maybe we can.” You respond. “Two…” You glance over to Vorty, “maybe three equal species working together, we can do a lot. Maybe even kick back whoever hurt your people.”

Once again, the wriggling pain in your skull sears across your head like a hot iron poked up against it, as the vortigaunt translator chants the Xen Controller’s words for them. “Their slave… you are their slave… you are…”

“One speaks for the species.” Vorty suddenly interrupts. “The species harbors liberation.”

“Hides… the species hides… the species hides…” The translator adds. “Deception… they seek deception… they seek deception…”

It seems that, after all the arguments you made, they simply don’t trust you, and their wise not to. You gave them your word that the CIA won’t experiment on them, but the word of a professional liar doesn’t carry a lot of weight. They might be a little more open if you showed you trusted them, or at least handed them some sort of insurance policy, like information they could use against you if your organization chose to screw them over.
(cont.)

>>4651045
In case the thread archives before then, the next update will be in another thread. I'm gonna try to start bringing the rate of updates back up again, at least to higher than it is now. If it's not done by at worst Monday, report me to civil protection.
(cont.)
>Hold out the CIA dongle that was sparking with vortal energy, tell them it shows the future, and tell them about the future you saw through the logs of a nuclear submarine that doesn’t officially exist, tell them what you intend to do with it, then stow it.
>Tell them all about the future you saw, the routine memory wipes, the Black Mesa administrator on the television, and the position of the woman’s eyes you looked through… who did look eerily like you.
>Hand them over near irrefutable proof of the Black Mesa event, the sim card in your goggles recording this very conversation. Now they have the power to leek everything you’ve seen since you retrieved your equipment from the dorms, so your bosses ought to appease them.
>Put all the risk on yourself personally. Have some “interference” affect your goggles while you quietly tell the creatures the name you were born with. With good enough contacts, or at least a lot of mind control, that would put your head right on a chopping block if the CIA doesn’t hold up this alliance.
>Kick the migraine a little, just enough to let that wriggling feeling on the other side in for a moment, and let them look for what they need to trust you.
>”Alright, if you don’t trust us, we don’t need to become best friends. But I think you can at least agree that these things in the machine are only gonna make it harder for whoever walks away, so can we at least remove them out before we return to each other's throats? You might have a deal for the long term, but those things are breathing down our necks as we speak.”
>Write in.

>>4651047
>Take a dose of Diazepam, and nod at Vorts so that he knows to back you up in case they try anything unwanted, like altering your memories.
>Kick the migraine a little, just enough to let that wriggling feeling on the other side in for a moment, and let them look for what they need to trust you.

I won’t lie, I was actually tempted to get the gag ending by giving the controller the weed. “Like, chill out, maaan.”

>>4651047
I'm going to call civil protection on you!

>>4654341
I'm working on the prompts right now. It'll be done before monday's over, and guarantee that.